38 Oxley Road
38 Oxley Road is a late-19th-century bungalow near Orchard Road, Singapore, that was the home of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew from the mid-1940s until his death in 2015. It was the birthplace, in its basement dining room, of the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954, and is closely associated with the founding of Singapore's post-colonial government.
Since 2017 it has also been the flashpoint for a public dispute among Lee Kuan Yew's three children over whether the house should be demolished, per his stated wish, or preserved for its heritage value; the site was gazetted as a National Monument in December 2025 and for compulsory acquisition in January 2026.
.jpg) The house in 2023 | |
| National Monument of Singapore | |
|---|---|
| Current designation | |
| Designated since | 12 December 2025 |
| Historical role | Founding venue of the People's Action Party, 1954 |
| Location details | |
| Type | Landmark |
| Location | 38 Oxley Road, Singapore 238629 |
| Area | approx. 1,050 sq m (developable site area) |
| Established | Circa 1898; commissioned by Dutch merchant Hermann Cornelius Verloop, designed by Lermit and Westerhout Architects and Surveyors |
| Operator | Owned by Lee Hsien Yang; subject to compulsory acquisition by the Singapore Land Authority (from January 2026) |
| Status | Gazetted as a National Monument, 12 December 2025; gazetted for acquisition, 29 January 2026 |
History
Two identical bungalows, "Castor" (No. 38) and "Pollux" (No. 40), were built on Oxley Road around 1898, commissioned by Dutch merchant Hermann Cornelius Verloop and designed by Lermit and Westerhout Architects and Surveyors.
The area itself took its name from Dr Thomas Oxley, a British surgeon who established a nutmeg plantation there in the 1830s. No. 40 (Pollux) was demolished and redeveloped in 2006; No. 38 (Castor) survives largely in its original form, one of only 16 conserved "Early style" bungalows remaining in Singapore.[1]
The house changed hands and tenants frequently in the early 20th century — it was advertised in 1911 as an unfurnished eight-bedroom lodging available for 65 Straits dollars — before European residents vacated the area during the Japanese Occupation (1942–45), when Oxley Road houses were converted into wartime "comfort houses".[1]
Lee Kuan Yew began renting the property in 1945–46, after his family had to leave China Building and found their Victoria Street shophouse home unsuitable. His wife, Kwa Geok Choo, moved into the house on 30 September 1950 after their wedding formalities were completed.
The Lees bought the property outright in 1965, after Singapore's separation from Malaysia raised security concerns, and fortified it with steel gates, additional brick walls and bullet-proof windows.[1]
Through the 1950s, the house became a meeting place for figures who would shape Singapore's politics, including John Eber, Samad Ismail, Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan, and students of the Chinese middle schools.
Most significantly, the PAP was formed in the basement dining room in 1954: around 20 people, including Dr Toh Chin Chye (chairman), Lee Kuan Yew (secretary), Lee Gek Seng (assistant secretary), Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan and Devan Nair, met there secretly, as internal security regulations of the time forbade political meetings.
The house also served as the PAP's first, de facto headquarters and election office, with campaign posters and banners prepared on its verandah, before the fledgling opposition party could secure a proper office of its own.[1] Lee Hsien Loong, later Singapore's third Prime Minister, was raised in the house.
Dispute over the house's fate
Lee Kuan Yew's wishes
Lee Kuan Yew stated repeatedly, including in his memoirs, that he wished the house demolished after his death, or otherwise kept as a closed residence for his family. In March 2011, he emailed editors of Singapore Press Holdings soliciting views on demolishing the house and building a scale model in its place; the editors were unanimous that the house should instead be preserved for its historical importance.
From the second half of 2011, having considered such views along with those of Cabinet colleagues, Lee Kuan Yew came to accept there was a strong body of opinion favouring preservation "in the public interest", and told his eldest son he was prepared to be flexible and consider options short of demolition, provided the house was kept habitable and the family's privacy protected.[1]
His children later gave differing accounts of how firm this openness to compromise was: Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang maintained that their father "wanted his house demolished and was implacably opposed to any other outcome" and never accepted preservation "in any way or form", while Lee Hsien Loong's position was that their father had genuinely come to accept the possibility of preservation, while still personally preferring demolition.[1]
Lee Kuan Yew's first will, made in August 2011, divided his estate — including the Oxley Road house, Cluny House, and other assets — equally among his three children. His seventh and final will, made in December 2013, left the house to Lee Hsien Loong, with a clause directing its demolition after Lee Wei Ling, who was living there, moved out.
Lee Kuan Yew died on 23 March 2015; the will was read that April, dividing his estate equally among the three children, with the Oxley Road house going to Lee Hsien Loong subject to a right for Lee Wei Ling to continue living there for as long as she wished. Probate was granted in October 2015 without objection.
2017 public feud
On 14 June 2017, Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling issued a public Facebook statement accusing their brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of abusing his office to block the house's demolition and of wishing to move in himself to inherit their father's political legacy.
They alleged the National Heritage Board, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, the Prime Minister's Office and a ministerial committee had all been drawn into what should have been a private family matter, and said they feared harassment by state authorities.
Lee Hsien Loong denied the allegations and expressed disappointment that a family matter had been made public; a special two-day parliamentary session was convened in July 2017 for ministers to address the dispute. The siblings later offered a truce and said they would pursue the matter privately, though as of an October 2017 interview Lee Hsien Loong said he was not sure the rift had been resolved.
The dispute also gave rise to separate legal proceedings concerning the drafting of Lee Kuan Yew's final will, including disciplinary action against Lee Hsien Yang's wife, Lee Suet Fern (see Law Society of Singapore v Lee Suet Fern), and against the family's longtime solicitor, Kwa Kim Li (see Law Society of Singapore v Kwa Kim Li), as well as the contempt-of-court case against Lee Hsien Yang's son Li Shengwu (see Li Shengwu contempt of court case) and a defamation suit brought by Lee Hsien Loong against The Online Citizen editor Terry Xu.
The Ministerial Committee (2016–2018)
On 1 June 2016, the Cabinet — with Lee Hsien Loong recused from all government decisions concerning the property — approved the formation of a Ministerial Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and including Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu, Minister for Law K Shanmugam, and Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong, to assess the property's heritage significance, Lee Kuan Yew's wishes, and possible options, so that "a future Government can refer to these plans and make a considered and informed decision when the time came to decide on the matter."
The Committee invited representations from all three of Lee Kuan Yew's children in their personal capacities.[1] The Committee's report, released in April 2018, assessed the house as having architectural, heritage and historical significance, and set out three broad categories of option for the property's future, without making a recommendation, since no decision was needed while Lee Wei Ling continued to live there:[1]
- Option 1 — Retain the property, either (1a) by gazetting it as a National Monument under the Preservation of Monuments Act, which would legally require the State to acquire the property within a year, rezone the site for a compatible alternative use (such as a museum, research institute, or heritage centre, possibly with restricted public access to protect the family's privacy), while keeping the surrounding area's two-storey housing zoning intact; or (1b) by gazetting it for conservation under the Planning Act instead, which carries less national-significance weight than preservation but allows the owner to keep living in the house, undertake renovations, or even sell it, while still legally protecting the building (including the basement dining room). Conservation could also serve as an interim step before a later upgrade to full preservation.
- Option 2 — Retain only the dining room where the PAP was founded, allowing the rest of the property to be demolished. The dining room could be preserved in situ as a National Monument (again requiring State acquisition within a year), housed within a simple structure open for guided viewing, and integrated into a park, research institute or heritage centre — allowing some public access and national-education use of the site's most historically significant space without exposing the rest of the Lee family's former living quarters.
- Option 3 — Demolish the property entirely and allow redevelopment, either (3a) by the owner, for residential use — under the site's existing two-storey zoning, or a rezoned higher-density scheme yielding an estimated 16 flats — or (3b) by the State, following acquisition, for an alternative public use such as a park, heritage centre or research institution.
The Committee also noted that vacant, State-owned land to the rear of the property and adjacent lots at 40–44 Oxley Road could potentially be amalgamated with the site under Options 1a, 2 or 3b, to give any redevelopment a larger footprint.
Its overall assessment (Chapter 5 of the report) was that Lee Kuan Yew's personal preference was for demolition, but that he had shown himself willing to accept alternatives provided the house remained habitable and the family's privacy was protected — leaving the final choice, in the Committee's own words, to "a future Government" once a decision actually became necessary.[1]
2024–2025: renewed dispute and gazetting
Lee Wei Ling died on 8 October 2024. Lee Hsien Yang, who had by then acquired ownership of the house from Lee Hsien Loong (see below), announced he intended to have it demolished in keeping with his father's wishes, and filed a demolition application on 21 October 2024.
On 24 October 2024, the National Heritage Board announced it was assessing whether the property should instead be gazetted and preserved as a National Monument, suspending the demolition application pending that assessment. In November 2025, the Government announced its intention to gazette the site as a National Monument for possible use as a heritage park.
Lee Hsien Yang objected publicly, arguing the move "trampled" on his father's wish for the house to be demolished. On 12 December 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth gazetted 38 Oxley Road as a National Monument. On 29 January 2026, the Singapore Land Authority and National Heritage Board jointly announced the site had been gazetted for compulsory acquisition, meaning it could no longer be redeveloped for private residential, commercial or other private use; the two agencies stated that all options identified in the 2018 Ministerial Committee report, including partial demolition, remained under consideration, and that compensation would be assessed under the Land Acquisition Act 1966 based on the site's market value as at the date of the acquisition gazette.
Both agencies stated that, regardless of which option is eventually chosen, the Government had committed to removing all traces of the family's private living spaces from the house's interior, and that the interior "as Mr Lee knew" would under no circumstances be displayed, recorded, remodelled or duplicated elsewhere.[2]
Sale of the house within the family (2015)
After inheriting the house under Lee Kuan Yew's will, Lee Hsien Loong first offered to sell it to Lee Wei Ling for a nominal S$1, on condition that any future sale proceeds, if the Government later acquired the property, be donated to charity; she declined. Lee Hsien Yang then purchased the house from his brother at market valuation, on the agreed condition that each of them would donate half the sale value to charity; Lee Hsien Loong later said he donated the entirety of his own share. Lee Wei Ling later disputed the accuracy of her brother's public statements about the terms of this arrangement.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Report of the Ministerial Committee on 38 Oxley Road (2018), Chapter 2; Annex A and Annex B (National Heritage Board research report).
- ↑ "The Site at 38 Oxley Road to be Acquired Following Its Gazette as a National Monument", joint media release, Singapore Land Authority and National Heritage Board, 29 January 2026.