This postcard shows a view of the city centre and outlying areas on the south side of the Singapore River taken from the Outram district. A prominent landmark shown in the foreground is the crescent-shaped Pearl Bank Apartments (left) at the foot of Pearl’s Hill. This 37-storey residential block was completed in 1976 under the government’s urban renewal programme and was then the tallest housing project in Singapore. The skyscrapers of the Central Business District (CBD) can be seen in the background. Some of the notable CBD landmarks captured in the picture include (from left to right): the 52-storey Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) Centre, which was the tallest building in the CBD when it was completed in 1976; the 30-storey United Overseas Bank (UOB) Building, previously the highest structure in the area when it was erected in 1974; the 44-storey Standard Chartered Bank Building (centre), which was officially opened in 1984 to house the bank’s headquarters; and the 47-storey Raffles Tower owned by Singapore Land that was completed in 1982 and renamed Shell Tower after its main tenant.
