I love stumbling onto little surprises in the city I live in. Today, I went for a walk in the Museum district and discovered this hidden gem. A little garden in the grounds of the Armenian Church just off Hill Street. It was the first church built in Singapore.
This aesthetic delight was built in 1835 by the Armenian community, and designed by George Coleman who was the mastermind architect behind most of the colonial structures in Singapore.
Some of the loveliest tombstones I've seen outside the French Quarter in New Orleans. They belong to members of the Sarkies family, the prominent Armenian family that owned some of the most luxurious hotels in the Far East including the Raffles in Singapore and E&O in Penang.
Here lies Vanda Miss Joaquim, after whom Singapore's national flower is named. She was a keen horticulturalist who unveiled the famed orchid at a flower show in 1899, for which she won a prize of 12 dollars.
