Baba House

Baba House is a Peranakan terrace house built in the 1890s and bought in 1910 by the Wee family, descendants of a shipping merchant, who kept it until a donation in 2005 let the National University of Singapore acquire it; it was restored to how it looked around 1928 using family photographs and memory. It is furnished throughout with the family's own things: blackwood furniture, ancestral altar, Peranakan porcelain, bedroom, kitchen. Visits are only by booked guided tour, which keeps numbers low and the house intact.

History

The house at 157 Neil Road was built in the 1890s and came to the Wee family in 1910, when a matriarch bought it for her grandson Wee Eng Cheng, and the area was gazetted for conservation in 1991. A S$4 million donation from Agnes Tan in April 2005 let the National University of Singapore acquire it, and it opened as the Baba House on 4 September 2008 (Wikipedia, Baba House).

What's there

• The 1928 restoration - rooms returned to a documented moment in the family's life.
• The family furniture - the Wee family's own blackwood pieces and porcelain.
• The ancestral altar - the hall arrangement at the centre of Peranakan domestic life.
• The blue facade - the painted terrace front on Neil Road.

When to go

Year round; visits are by booked guided tour only and slots are limited, so booking well ahead is necessary. Tours run on set days. The house closes for university holidays at times.

What to expect

There is no drop-in access at all; without a booking you see the front door. Tours are limited in number and book out weeks ahead. Photography inside is restricted.

Nearby

Chinatown is north, and Tiong Bahru is west.

Key facts