The Singapore Philatelic Museum is dedicated to the world of stamps and postal-related items. It is also a family-friendly museum with many exhibits oriented towards young children. In fact, its compact size makes it easy for kids to explore and there are plenty of things To see and do at the Singapore Philatelic Museum.
Things To See and Do at Singapore Philatelic Museum
There are 10 different spaces within the museum, and the majority of them host changing exhibits. This means that there is always something new to see at the Singapore Philatelic Museum.
Here are 10 fun things you can see and do around the Singapore Philatelic Museum.
1. Find Out What Cinderella has to do with Stamps
What is a Cinderella? What is a Imperf? Learn more about these philately terms at the museum’s Orange Room. There is a Language of Philately display which has cubby holes you can open to discover what these terms mean. You can also view examples of stamps what have been forged and learn about an undersea post office that once existed.
2. Be a Stamp
Turn yourself into a stamp at the Green Room. There is a cut-out here that you can step inside of, do an awesome pose and pretend to be a 100-cent stamp!
3. Un-puzzle Children’s Puzzles
Stamps come in all designs and who says you can’t have some fun with them. Just outside the Green Room are three stamps with children’s puzzles illustrated on them. See if you can solve the puzzles. If you are with a friend or family member, turn it into a challenge and see who can solve the puzzles faster.
4. View (Part of) an 11-Storey Mail Box
Can you imagine dropping a letter down 11 storeys? At Singapore Philatelic Museum’s Room of Rarities, you can view a section of a Royal Mail Chute that used to be installed at Robinson Road in Singapore’s Central Business District. It ran from the 12th floor to the 2nd floor so that the postman did not have to visit each floor to pick up the letters. Lifts must have been slower back then.
5. Pretend to Tikam Tikam
Just outside the Heritage Room is a display of what a traditional mama store looked like. On the wall is a tikam tikam board. Unfortunately, you can’t choose anything from the board but you can still imagine what it would have been like in the past when people would pick random numbers for a fee to win prizes from the board.
6. Stamp Around in Clogs
The Heritage Room is set up to look like a shophouse. There is an old-school coffee counter, displays of Singapore’s cultural traditions and postcards of the many people who came to settle in Singapore. One of the activities you can do here is to try walking around traditional red clogs that were once commonly found in households around Singapore.
7. Stretch Up a Lamp Post
Nowadays, we think of post boxes as rectangular-shaped containers embedded into the ground. However, in the past, in less populated areas, post boxes were “tied” to lamp posts to save on the need to embed the post box into the ground. Furthermore, the light from the lamp proved useful at night if you needed to scribble an address on the letter at the last minute. You can view an example of such a lamp posting box that was used in late 1940s Singapore at the Room of Rarities.
8. Shop for Postal Items
Singapore Philatelic Museum’s shop is where you can buy postcards, first day covers and other postal items. You can also find items that will remind you of childhoods past such as foam aeroplanes at the shop. Especially fascinating are postcards of old Singapore, showing how much the country has changed over the years.
9. Post a Letter
Just outside of Singapore Philatelic Museum is Singapore’s only operational red pillar post box. The pillar post box was introduced in 1873. As a special memento of your visit, you can purchase a postcard and stamps from the museum’s shop and send it to yourself.
