The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall is actually two buildings, built separately - the town hall in 1862 and the theater in 1901, the latter built in memory of the recently-deceased Queen Victoria. A clock tower and a common corridor join the two buildings.
One building houses a theater that seats about 900 patrons. The other building houses a concert hall with the best acoustics in town (until the construction of the Esplanade in 2004); the hall seats 883, with an orchestra pit that seats up to 30 musicians. The Victoria was Singapore's pre-eminent arts venue until the Esplanade was completed.
In 1919, a hundred years after Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore, a statue of the founder was moved from the Padang to the front of the Victoria Theatre.
The Victoria was unspared the horrors of World War II - it served as a makeshift hospital during the invasion of the Japanese, and held the trials for the Japanese war criminals after their surrender in 1945.
In more recent history, the Victoria served as the birthplace of the ruling People's Action Party.
Address: 9 Empress Place, Singapore
How to get there: Take the MRT to City Hall MRT Interchange and walk along St Andrew's Road towards the Padang.
