Singapore Poly students, staff, alumni take 16km walk down memory lane

Singapore Polytechnic’s alumni, staff and students celebrating the end of the Heritage Trail at the Dover Road campus. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC
Singapore Polytechnic’s alumni, staff and students celebrating the end of the Heritage Trail at the Dover Road campus. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC
Singapore Polytechnic’s alumni, staff and students in front of the Polytechnic’s first campus, the Prince Edward Campus. The former campus is now known as Bestway Building. --  PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC

SINGAPORE - To mark Singapore Polytechnic's 60th anniversary, 600 students, staff and alumni traced its history on a 16km Heritage Trail on Saturday morning. The trail began at the polytechnic's first official office at the Bank of China, before moving on to its first campus at Prince Edward Road, now the Bestway Building.

There, participants admired old photographs and toured the building, including an old lecture theatre.

Other stops were the former Labrador campus at the Banyanihan Centre on Pasir Panjang Road and the former Ayer Rajah campus that is now the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The trail ended at current Dover Road campus, where a retro carnival took them back to the past with band performances, games, a display of vintage cars, memorabilia and photos.

One of those who remembered the old, smaller Dover Road campus was Mr Simon Soh, 49, who studied mechanical engineering there from 1982 till 1985.

"We used to hang out in the school," he recalled. "It felt like home - we would stay there almost the whole day."

The smaller campus made it easier to get around, but Mr Soh admires Singapore Polytechnic's much larger grounds today.

""From such a small campus, we could grow up till this point... It's really something."

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