Secretive demolition of Raffles house

ON Aug 3, 1808, the wife of Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote to the Scottish poet and orientalist John Leyden to tell him that her husband was building a “pretty brick house” in Beach Road (later Northam Road and now Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah).

Raffles and Olivia moved into their beachfront house called “Runnymede” in early 1809 and lived there until Raffles left for Malacca towards the end of 1810.