Princess Elizabeth Estate, Hillview: Castrol Singapore

Monday, December 23, 2019

Factories around Hillview (#11) - The Hong Kong Rope Mfg Co. Ltd.

The HK Rope Manufacturing Co at Hillview.
In the background is the Chartered Bank building along Upper Bukit Timah Road
and the Salvation Army Children's Home across the road.

The Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Co Ltd was one of the early set-ups in the newly established Colonial Industrial Estate at Hillview. They started operations in 1953 and was one of the four pioneer factories to be located along Hillview Avenue.

This Hong Kong establishment was enticed to invest in a manufacturing facility in Singapore through generous grants and incentives given by the then Colonial Development Corporation. They would be the main supplier of manila ropes for the shipping industry as Singapore gained momentum as a modern entrepot port. It was located on an eight acre plot at the junction of Hillview Road with Hillview Avenue.

Even while it was the only local manila rope manufacturer, the company had to struggle with declining sales for manila ropes over the years of operation. This was due to their inability to re-configure their factory to produce what the market was then turning to. That product was the new, cheaper, stronger and more durable nylon ropes!

The Straits Times report of 17 March 1954 announcing the opening of the factory.

The HK Rope Manufacturing Co shuttered its factory in 1963 and sold the property to the British Castrol Lubricant Company.

The Castrol Lubricant factory that replaced the HK Rope Mfg Co.

Today the same site is occupied by the Glendale Park Condominium complex.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Factories around P.E.E. (6) - Castrol.

If you lived at Princess Elizabeth Estate or at the later Hillview HDB Estate, there was one prominent landmark that you could never miss. It was situated by the Hillview Circus (roundabout). Cars or vehicles driving by this place will have to slow down due to the very steep incline that is Hillview Road. Thus, you were given a clear view of this landmark as you passed the site.

This was the Castrol lubricant manufacturing factory with its huge distinctive silver oil storage tanks.

The storage tanks appear to be painted a dark colour but most everyone remember it in its silver livery.
(Photo taken in 1973.)

The Castrol plant was set up in 1963 with the encouragement of the Economic Development Board. Those were the years of frenzied factory building with great economic incentives given to major brands that wished to set up factories in Singapore.

It was originally called Castrol (Far East) Pte Ltd and was the first major overseas subsidiary of the British Castrol company which specialised in machine and engine lubricants.
The factory was opened in 1963 by Dr Goh Keng Swee amidst great flourish with the first drum of lubricant marked for shipment to Kobe, Japan.

As a young lad, I thought that the factory was an oil refinery due to the unmistakable oil storage tanks located there. It was only much later that I learnt that Castrol only manufactured lubricants for engines and that this plant at Hillview was its major manufacturing facility outside of Europe.

Castrol operated its factory from 1963 until 1993 when the Hillview area was rezoned from an industrial area to a condominium residential zone. The factory then relocated to new premises at Jurong Industrial Estate.

Unless you are now in your 70s and lived at Princess Elizabeth, you probably would not have known the previous occupant of the Castrol site. The original factory that stood on that Colonial Industrial Estate site was the Hong Kong Rope Manufacturing Company.

Today, the site is occupied by the Glendale Park and Hillview Park Condominium complexes.

The old Castrol site at Hillview Ave. The condo is Glendale Park.
Note Hillview Circus in the foreground - one of the last remaining roundabouts in Singapore.
I sincerely hope that the authorities will not convert this circus in their zeal for 'progress'.