The Cathedral of the Good Shepherd is Singapore’s first Roman Catholic church building and was constructed at Bras Basah Road in 1833. However, being made of wood and attap, it could not serve the needs of the growing Catholic community and a larger church had to be built. Later, this newer church was built and remained at its present site on Queen’s street.
The French priest, Father Jean Marie Beurel, decided to use the old church as a school, and thus started St. Joseph’s Institution. The consecration of the new church as was done by Father Beurel in 1846, but it was only consecrated as a cathedral in 1897 by Bishop Rene Fee.
The Cathedral was designed by Denis Leslie McSwiney, and its architecture is largely reminiscent of two famous London churches: St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, and St. Martin-in-the-fields.
Within the compound of the Cathedral are two 19th century bungalows, namely the Archbishop’s House and the Priest’s Residence. The former was constructed in 1859 while the latter was only constructed in 1911. Both stand today as one of the oldest buildings in the district.
There seems to be little or no historical awareness for the monument as shown in the act of a Circle Line contractor who tore down the boundary wall of the Cathedral to make way for the construction of the exhaust vent. The consequence of that and the development of the Circle Line itself has taken its toll on the old church building, as seen by the cracking of the foundation in the walls.
Temporary structures such as those shown below had to be added to the back of the church to give it stability and stop it from crumbling.
Temporary structures such as those shown below had to be added to the back of the church to give it stability and stop it from crumbling.
