Matilda House. Address not applicable
^Pic from URA's Skyline magazine.
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MATILDA HOUSE CONSERVATION AREA
Located off Punggol Road, the area was given conservation status on
21 February 2000. It contains an early style tropical bungalow
built in 1902 by a Mr Joseph Cashin. It has entrances on two sides
of the main building, an open balcony at the front facade and a
long verandah that takes advantage of the panoramic views.
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From SPI website:
http://www.spi.com.sg/spi_files/punggol_kampong_house/main.htm
" The dilapidated framework and red corrugated roof don't do any
justice to its glorious past. It had a red-tiled roof and pristine
white-washed walls then. It was a sprawling, single-storey,
six-bedroomed bungalow with servants quarters attached, stables on
the side and set in orchards which had mangosteen, durian and
rambutan trees.
Manicured lawns, tropical blooms, clipped hedges lay to the front
with neat tennis courts to the sides. And a long staircase ran down
the garden - which was on several levels - to the sandy beach,
which was a mere 200m away. Even this was not all of it. The Cashin
family owned about 350 hectares of land in the area on which there
were also rubber and coconut plantations.
'The last time I came here was about 10 years ago,' said Mr Cashin,
looking mildly upset. His first memories of Matilda House date to
the time he was about 4 years old. The Cashin family, originally
from Ireland and one of the oldest to have settled in Singapore,
owned several other houses here. Mr Cashin was born in their
mansion in Haig Road, now no longer in existence. There was also a
house on Grange Road and another in Sarimbun. In addition, the
family owned other properties, including about 400 shop-houses all
over the island.
'It was my grandfather, Joseph William Cashin, who made the money,'
he explained. Once a lawyer's clerk, his grandfather invested in
opium farms - legal in the 1880s - and made a fortune there before
investing in real estate. Cashin Street, off North Bridge Road, was
named after him. 'My father followed suit, but without benefit of
the opium,' quipped Mr Cashin. 'He built Matilda House, and my
memories of Singapore as a small boy revolve vastly around it. We
could swim in the sea, but in pagars (a swimming enclosure in the
sea) to keep out sharks or the occasional crocodile which would
appear.'
Mr Cashin later became one of this country's best-known legal
eagles, and was a sparkling personality and somewhat controversial
figure on the sports scene. The long-time president of the
Singapore Rugby Union played on the Singapore Cricket Club rugby
team and also captained its cricket team for several years. But he
had left Singapore at 7 to go to school in England. And stayed
there for 11 years, going later to Oxford University where he shone
at cricket and rugby and qualified as a lawyer.
'I had some happy days at Matilda House when I returned just before
the war,' he said. 'Then went off again.' He spent much of the war
in the Indian Army, stationed at the north-east frontier. He said
matter-of-factly: 'Those places they mention in Afghanistan these
days... they are all familiar to me.' Immediately after, he
returned to England, was called to the Bar in London and came back
here to practise as a lawyer.
'I was also newly-married then,' he said. 'And we set up home in
Matilda House.' Those halcyon days, when he was a 'workaholic
lawyer', avid sportsman, young husband and father were evidently
the happiest. His two children from that first marriage - Mary, now
48 and Charles, now 46 - spent their first years in the house.
Later his brother, Mr Joseph Cashin, also a prominent lawyer here,
took over the house with their mother and sister.
They were asked to leave about 10 years ago and the house has lain
empty, falling slowly into ruin.
Mr Cashin himself had left Singapore by the late 1980s, settling in
Italy with his second wife. But when that marriage was over, he
returned here, to Murphy and Dunbar, the old law firm he'd been a
partner in. It was dissolved in 1996 and he started his own firm.
He is only semi-retired now, still taking the odd case. And with
his siblings and children all living abroad, he's the only Cashin
left in Singapore now.
Seeing Matilda House after all these years was an emotional
experience. There's regret at the state of disrepair it has fallen
into, but that's tinged with a measure of satisfaction. He said:
'I'm happy that the house will still be standing. But I hope it
will be used well.'"
