Old girls of MGS fight to save Old School on Mount Sophia

Online petition calls for URA to conserve former MGS campus

Published on Oct 23, 2011

Ex-classmates Carol Tham (left) and Lim Li-Hsien are petitioning the Urban Redevelopment Authority to conserve the former campus of Methodist Girls' School. The Mount Sophia site is slated for residential development. -- ST PHOTOS: NURIA LING, TERRENCE LIM

By Eisen Teo and Judith Tan

Old girls of Methodist Girls' School (MGS) have banded together in a bid to conserve their former school campus on Mount Sophia.

Former classmates Carol Tham and Lim Li-Hsien, both 47, launched a Facebook page called Save Old School (SOS) earlier this month, after reports that the authorities are conserving only one of six buildings there.

After three weeks, the site has gathered 3,100 'likes'. The site of creative arts enclave Old School at 11, Mount Sophia has been slated for residential development under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) 2008 Master Plan.

Background story

A HISTORY OF OLD SCHOOL

1928: The Methodist Girls' School (MGS), founded in 1887 by Australian missionary Sophia Blackmore, moved to 11 Mount Sophia. The move was precipitated by overcrowding of its Short Street premises.

1936: Madam Kwa Geok Choo, the late wife of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, graduated from MGS.

1942 to 1945: During the Japanese Occupation, the school was renamed Mount Sophia Girls' School. Enrolment dwindled to just 15 girls and a staff of seven by 1944. The medium of instruction was switched from English to Japanese.

1945: After the Japanese surrender, the school, named MGS again, recovered from a post-war shortage of equipment, books and funds to establish itself as a reputable girls' school.

1989: MGS went independent.

1992: MGS moved to Blackmore Drive.

June 2007: Mr Ken Chong, Mr Andrew Lau and a third anonymous businessman leased the former campus from the Singapore Land Authority and spent $2.5 million on revamping the site into Old School, a creative arts enclave. The lease was for two years, with an option to renew for a third year.

2010 to 2011: Old School's lease was extended twice, and the latest extension granted in August is only for six months, from Dec 2011 to June 2012.

Eisen Teo & Judith Tan

Its lease expires next June and only the oldest building on site - No. 11A, built in 1928, also known as the Olson Building - was conserved in August. 'Seeing that the page was launched only on Oct 7, I think over 3,000 'likes' and about 111,000 hits are pretty significant in that space of time,' Ms Tham, a housewife, said.