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Telok Ayer Street Church
Location : 235, Telok Ayer Street Singapore - 068656 How To Reach : The Church is at short walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT Station. Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church is a heritage building on Telok Ayer Street. It belongs to the Chinese Annual Conference Methodist church of Singapore which has two locations: TA1 at Telok Ayer Street near Chinatown, and TA2 at Telok Blangah Road. Church and Methodis
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| The Chinese Methodist Church of Telok Ayer traces its roots to 1889, when Dr Benjamin West, a Methodist missionary, arrived in Singapore and set up a dispensary at Japan Street (today called Boon Tat Street) to help the poor Chinese labourers living there who are mostly Hokkiens and many were opium addicts. Dr West started church services at a rented house in Upper Nankin Street in August 1889. Initially the congregation was mostly Hokkien speaking. However, new waves of migrants brought along Chinese people speaking other dialects, resulting in the eventual development of a Foochow Methodist Church and a Hokkien Methodist Church. The Hokkien-speaking congregation eventually moved to new premises in Japan Street, and in 1906, the Hokkien church became known as the Telok Ayer Church. In 1913, Reverend FH Sullivan bought a plot of land at the junction of Telok Ayer Street and Cecil Street. There he set up a tent and held services there. Unfortunately a year later the tent collapsed. The church then moved to Fairfield Girls' School in Neil Road. Meanwhile a structure of wood and corrugated iron was built on the plot, and in 1915, services returned to Telok Ayer Street. In 1921, the church raised funds to erect a permanent building. The funds raised enabled it to buy the adjoining land as well. A three-storey building, designed by the architectural firm Swan and MacLaren, and built by French contractor Bross and Mogin, was erected there. The project began on 19 January 1924, and was completed by December of the same year. On 11 January 1925, the Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church was consecrated by Methodist Bishop Titus Lowe. |
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