Cavenagh Bridge was proposed in 1867 and built by 1869 in response to decades of complaints about the inconvenience of getting from the northern administrative district to Commercial Square to the south. The bridge was built also to commemorate the founding of the Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements in 1867 and named after the last India-appointed Governor of Singapore, Sir William Orfeur Cavenagh. Built in 1862, Victoria Memorial Hall, or Town Hall - as it was previously known - did not include the Memorial Hall originally. The Memorial Hall had been erected only much later to commemorate the memory of Queen Victoria after she passed away in January 1901. The clock tower was installed in 1906 and inaugurated by the Duchess of Connaught the following year.
