The first office for Singapore's pioneer policemen was an attap house near the Singapore River.

Simple as it was in its construction, the house was already a step up for the 12 men in the force formed in 1820, as they previously had to report for work at the residence of the officer in charge, who was the son-in-law of William Farquhar, Singapore's first British Resident.

Today, the 15,000-strong force report for work at numerous multi-storeyed complexes located around the island, including the sprawling Police Cantonment Complex in New Bridge Road.

The first police office has long been demolished, but the public can now walk to the site where it once stood, as part of a heritage trail the Singapore Police Force launched yesterday to mark its 200th anniversary this year.

The trail covers nine sites central to the force's operations in the past two centuries, in Chinatown and the Central Business District.

The start of the trail is marked by a physical marker in front of the Asian Civilisations Museum, which is near the site of the first police office. Visitors can walk to the Kreta Ayer Neighbourhood Police Post, one of the sites, to see a permanent exhibition on the trail and the evolution of the area around it.

Another site of interest is the former Traffic Police headquarters in Maxwell Road, home to the Traffic Police for 69 years from 1930. It has been refurbished and is now the Maxwell Chambers Suites, which houses legal institutions and firms.

Other sites include the Lower Barracks in Pearl's Hill, which used to house the police's Sikh Contingent in 1934 until it was disbanded in 1946.

It then served as the police headquarters and housed their radio division and Criminal Investigation Department from 1946, until the last division moved out in 2001. The Lower Barracks building is conserved, and is now a commercial building.

A guide for this heritage trail is available here.