Should Istana Woodneuk, in Singapore’s ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ estate Tyersall Park, be preserved for its heritage?
- The mansion that was once the home of the Johor royal family has fallen into disrepair and over the years there have been calls to preserve it
- Tyersall Park was the setting of the Young family’s ancestral home in the 2018 hit movie and there is now talk that the estate could be developed into luxury homes
When art educator Dahlia Osman was a child, she would visit her grandparents during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at a house in a sprawling estate near Singapore’s Botanic Gardens.
Known as Tyersall Park, the estate, which belongs to the royal family of Johor, once housed a large palace called Istana Tyersall, which was demolished in 1935. There was also a smaller mansion known as Istana Woodneuk, which burned down in 1925. In its place, Istana Wooden York was built, but became known to the community as Istana Woodneuk. It has been abandoned since it was damaged beyond repair by a fire in 2006.
Dahlia’s grandparents moved to Tyersall Park with their children in 1951 when her great-grandfather, Ahmad, was hired as a gardener at Istana Woodneuk. Her grandfather, Handair bin Haji Sidek, later became the chief servant of Sultan Ibrahim.
“My father wasn’t from Tyersall but my mom did grow up there from when she was three years old till she got married and moved out in 1968. She told my siblings and I many stories about her childhood and how it was growing up at Tyersall. Some stories were paranormal ones, some were about the tropical fruits that grew in abundance there, while some were about happy events and occasions that they organised as a community,” Dahlia, 49, told This Week in Asia.
Tyersall Park has been in the news in recent weeks, with Bloomberg reporting that the current registered owner of the land – the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim – is in talks with Singapore authorities for permission to develop a cluster of high-end homes there.
The land is currently zoned “special use of green space”, with restrictions on residential or commercial uses.