Snippets Of History: CHIJMES

Regular EL contributor CERI POWELL explores the backstory of a pretty and popular enclave in the heart of Singapore.

While today it’s known for its lively food culture in the midst of the CBD, the whitewashed Neo-Classical buildings of CHIJMES – and its peculiar name – hint at a very different past.

CHIJMES (pronounced “chimes”) is an abbreviation for “Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Middle Education School”, a girls’ school that was established on the current site in 1854. Three years earlier, in 1851, a Singapore-based French priest, Father Jean-Marie Beurel, had been sent by the Vicar of Malaya to recruit teachers from France. A group of sisters from the Charitable Schools of the Holy Infant Jesus of St Maur in Paris made the arduous journey by boat, but when some died at sea, others then travelled overland via Egypt. (Just imagine the conditions!)

They finally arrived in Penang, where they set up the first Infant Jesus school in Asia. In 1854, a group of four sisters came to Singapore to do the same thing here, and the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) was established.

The sisters lived in the elegant Caldwell House, designed by George Coleman in 1841 (and the second oldest surviving building in Singapore). Father Beurel is said to have purchased the house for 4,000 francs. Designed for the tropics, the bungalow’s lounge has a semi-circular projection with huge louvred windows on all sides to catch the breeze. As you look up at the bay windows, you can imagine the nuns sewing, writing and planning school lessons 160 years ago in the new settlement of Singapore.