Going inside the haunted Hillview Mansion.

Since first writing about the infamous Hillview Mansion on Bukit Gombak in 2012, I've added about another half a dozen more articles related to it. The last two being exclusive exterior photos of the 'haunted' building photographed and shared here by my reader Lester Yeong. 

(Links to these articles are at the end of the blog)

In this article, I will take you inside the Hillview Mansion to see the unfinished and abandoned interior.
The dark, creepy and unkempt rooms with the incomplete construction works would definitely have made any brave intruder think the place was haunted. Evidence of the sudden abandonment were all over the scene.
Of course, today the building no longer exist, being demolished long ago, with only the driveway retaining wall and the original gate remaining. 

I am not too sure if the State has taken back the land but prominent "No trespassing" signs and even a Police notice were erected as a warning that people have been prosecuted for the offence. (Adventurers and hikers to Bukit Gombak please take note.)

Building Facade

Abandoned Construction Works

Interior Trim & Decor

Links to other Hillview Mansion articles:-

The Haunted House at Hillview
The burial of the Hillview Mansion

The landslides at the haunted grounds

Why the Hillview Mansion was abruptly abandoned
Exclusive Photos of Hillview Mansion Part 1
Exclusive Photos of Hillview Mansion Part 2

Hillview Haunted House - Exclusive Photos Part 1

I first wrote about the Hillview haunted house back in 2012. 

Since then, I have updated this blog several times in the past with more related articles (links to those articles are below) to appease the undying curiosity of my readers.

This so called Hillview Mansion was abandoned in 1986 and left there uncompleted till it was demolished in the early 2000s. 

Through the years since, strange incidents kept happening at that site such as recurring landslides, paranormal activities and people getting struck by lightning there. 

This led to many people speculating that the site and the abandoned house had something that was not apparent, something not quite right about it, and so the stories began circulating and grew into a life of its own.

In 2019, I revealed why the house was abandoned. I also promised then to reveal the reasons why and how it perhaps became haunted. 

However, at this time, I still can't reveal those reasons due to the fact that the person who survived the lightning strike has not given me permission to tell the story of that tragic day.

So please wait patiently for that coming article.

The house is no longer standing and the land is completely sealed off now. 

But that hasn't stopped the curious, and many trespassers have been caught by the authorities over the years. Most of them due to their youthful exuberance and friends dares. 

Lester Yeong, in his youth, was also one of those adventurers and explorers who had visited the Hillview Mansion on several occasions in the past due to its infamous history. 

Being intrigued as to why the house seemed abandoned, he was brave and curious enough to risk entering back in the late 1990s when the house was still intact. 

Nevertheless and most fortunate for all of us today was that Lester took a whole series of photographs of the abandoned Hillview house before it was demolished. This is treasure as there have been so few available photos of Hillview Mansion, especially of its interior!

Lester wrote to me and offered me the exclusive rights to publish these, till now, unseen photos in his collection. These were taken between 1998 and 2000. Being more than 20 years old and having been kept in his old albums, I tried as best as I could to restore some of the colours back into the faded photos. The collection has more than sixty photographs which shows the exterior, and the rarely seen interior of the house that Mr. Chua Boon Peng built at Hillview.

To prevent an information overload, I will publish  Lester Yeong's photo collection over several parts. The first here with 12 photos to give you a taste of what's in store! 

I will leave minimal captions on the photos but please do give me your feedback in the  comment section below (don't forget to include your name in the comment, please)

For those who may not have seen the previous articles regarding the Haunted Hillview Mansion, I append some links here for your convenience:-

The haunted house at Hillview

The burial of the Hillview Mansion
The landslides at the haunted site
Why the Hillview Mansion was abruptly abandoned

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS OF THE HILLVIEW MANSION

This is the locked gate at Jalan Dermawan, familiar to those who have been there
but seen from the property outwards with the familiar retaining wall at the side.
Today, the gate and the wall are the only existing relics from the original construction.

The view from the top balcony towards the condos along Hillview Avenue

 

Hillview Haunted House - Why it was abruptly abandoned.

The ghostly Hillview Mansion.

Ever since I wrote about the haunting of the Hillview Mansion in this blog eight years ago, it has become the  most searched for, the most visited, and most read article of my blog. I guess many people are simply obsessed by hauntings, by ghost stories or just simply curious. Most are skeptical but still piqued by the possibility and like to know that little bit more. I still get requests from readers, almost on a weekly basis, wanting to know the story behind the haunted house.

Over the years, I have seen so many speculations and conspiracy theories about this place. None of which have come close to the real reason why the Hillview Mansion became as it was.
I have put off revealing the real reasons for the past eight years simply because some of the people involved were, or are still, around and it just wasn't helpful to add to the speculation.
So now, after eight long years of keeping the mystery a secret, and to dispel any further speculations, I will reveal the story....well, at least a major part of it.
There are two parts to this story:
Firstly, why the house was abruptly abandoned, and secondly, why it became haunted.


March 1986.
EVERYONE, STOP WORK AND LEAVE, NOW!

It was absolutely true that the construction of the mansion at Jalan Dermawan was stopped abruptly.
No notice of a slowdown or postponement. It was simply everything halt, down tools and get out of the property immediately. So what had really happened to reach this dramatic point in March 1986?

As in all dramas, true or fictional, the story reaches further out than you'd expect.
Here, it all has to do with shenanigans at a totally and seemingly unrelated place.

You would have known by now, if you had read the story of the mansion, that the place was owned by Mr Chua Boon Peng. He was then the chairman of Cycle and Carriage Ltd, a major vehicle distributor and land developer. C&C owned many properties in Hillview. These would be developed into houses and condominiums in future. However, this plot at the top of Jalan Dermawan, was personally owned by Chua. It was said that he paid $7m at that time for the land. He wanted to build a villa for his wife and family, and so construction of his villa began sometime in 1985.


Dirty dealings at Raffles Place
If you are old enough to recall events in the mid-1980s, while Singapore was well on its way to become an Asian Tiger, there were also some major financial scandals that rocked, or rather caused earthquakes, in the local business world. Two separate meltdowns involved companies called Lamipak Industries Pte Ltd and Pan Electric Industries Ltd. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost and it even led to the closure of the local bourse for a time. The spectacular collapse of these darling blue chip companies caused the entire business world to go into a dizzy spin.

It was the debacle at the former company Lamipak Industries Pte Ltd that caused collateral damage to the Hillview Mansion. (Note: Lamipak Industries Pte Ltd of 1985 is unrelated to the similarly named Lamipak companies of today) 
Lamipak Industries in 1985 was Singapore's largest manufacturer of plastic products. Famously, they had invented a method to use high-density polymer to manufacture the ubiquitous thin plastic bags. They also made the machinery to roll these out which was sold internationally. With some push from the government, Lamipak had become a world leader and a  household name for plastic manufacturing. It was one of Singapore's industrial blue-eyed boys.
But success got into the heads of those that mattered. Books were fiddled, credit fraudulently obtained and when the game was up, they were in a $140m hole from which they couldn't get out of. Directors were jailed and the company was declared bankrupt.


How is this tied in to the Hillview House?
Lamipak Industries had a subsidiary company called Panther Pte Ltd. Lamipak owned 25% of Panther, while Panther's chairman owned 38%. Panther's chairman was none other than Mr Chua Boon Peng.
When Lamipak Industries became insolvent, the banks pulled their credit from Panther as well. Chua was personally liable for loans totalling almost $19m to the banks. He was a guarantor to the banks for the loans to Panther.

To raise funds to repay the debt, Chua had to sell many of his possessions that included a house at Oei Thong Ham Park, as well as the plot at Hillview where the villa was being built!
And so, the construction ceased immediately with the decision to sell the land.

Part One of the mystery solved!

So then, how did it evolved into a haunted house?
Was it because a lady died (true) when she was struck by lightning there at the abandoned house? Was it because of all the seances being held at the abandoned building? Was it because of bad feng shui? Were the dead cats buried there part of some nefarious ritual? Why was it left abandoned for three decades and access prevented by barbed wires?
Part two will reveal all in due time.

What's left of the Hillview Mansion being completely demolished and removed in 2007.

The burial of the Hillview Mansion.

Most ex-residents of Princess Elizabeth Estate know, but speak softly, of the infamous Hillview Mansion. If you are not aware of what I am referring to, you can refer to my earlier article about the Hillview Mansion here.

This Mansion was destined not to be built. Some put it to bad luck, some say it was cursed. Most believe it was haunted. Whatever the reason, the land has remained vacant from the 1980s till today - prime real estate that was left untouched for more than 30 years! Why? Has it anything to do with the fact that a young lady was struck by lightning on this very spot?

When a landslide occurred in 2006, rumours spread like wildfire that the cause was supernatural. This so called paranormal incident was further reinforced when a bigger more massive landslide reoccurred at the very same spot a few months later in 2007! This confirmed in the minds of many nearby residents that the spirits refused to have any structure on that spot.

Here are some pictures of the 'Hillview Mansion' just after the 2007 massive landslide.
Though the mansion was previously demolished, the landslide finally buried all traces of the structure.

The mansion stood where the orange spot of earth with the excavator is on.

Strangely the landslide occurred only where the mansion's property lies.

The land terraced and grouted to prevent further occurrences.

The Hillview Mansion property is still vacant till this day.
Can you see something unusual in the photograph?

Related links:
The haunted house at Hillview.
The haunted house re-visited.

Photos copyright & courtesy of Yum Shoen Keng.

The House that vanished at Hillview !

Again at Hillview, there was yet another mystery concerning another house. Coincidently, just like the haunted Hillview Mansion, it was also known as the Green House. This time, the mystery was not that it was haunted, but that the Green House suddenly and completely disappeared overnight!

More precisely, it happened within Princess Elizabeth Estate School  around 1965 or 1966, the date which I have yet to verify. When it happened, it affected a lot of the PEES students. For me it was quite traumatic, the reason which I will explain shortly.

The house was known as TONG LIANG House, aka the Green House.
If you had read my earlier blogs, you might know that in Princess Elizabeth Estate School, all the children were assigned into a different sports team known as a Sports House.
Most students will know of the four houses named Gammon House, Guttas House, Hume House and Kiwi House. Each house had a differentiating color.

However, students who were there before 1965 will know of another house called Tong Liang House.
This was the original Green House. For some inexplicable reason, Tong Liang House disappeared from the radar screen one day when it was announced that there would only be four houses instead of five. Tong Liang House was dropped and all students were re-assigned into a new house.

Which sports house you were re-assigned to depended on your admission number. For this reason I was moved from Guttas House to Kiwi House. It was a traumatic thing for me because Guttas House was the 2nd best in sports, while Kiwi House was always last! It was like being relegated to the bottom of the league! It was depressing to be counted among the 'losers'.

I was reminded of this missing entity by my friend and reader, Brenda Phua. "Do you recall another house called Tong Liang?", she asked after reading my Malayan Guttas blog.

OMG! How could I have missed that!
Of all people, I should have been the one who would remember that fact!
Tong Liang House was named after MY grand uncle, Goh Tong Liang!

My grand uncle, Goh Tong Liang

Goh Tong Liang was a member of the Singapore Legislative Assembly. He was the elected Legislative Assemblyman for Bukit Panjang and was in the 1st Singapore government under Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock in 1955.

Goh Tong Liang was known as the champion of the rural folks and of farmers' causes.
He lived at Chua Chu Kang, was a successful businessman and owned a huge 8 acres rambutan estate.
He was very vocal in parliament and you can read a lot of his speeches in the legislative archives.

Goh Tong Liang was the elder 3rd brother of my grandfather, Goh Tong Siew.
This is a picture of my grandfather with his family. The brothers do look alike.
Goh Tong Liang was the 3rd son, while my grandfather was the 6th son in their family.

I do not know why the school dropped Tong Liang House and re-assigned the green sports colors to Gammon House. Maybe if some ex-PEES sportsmaster like Mr Venugopal, Mr Gabriel Lim or Mr Koshy might happened unto my blog, they can tell us the reason why the Green House of PEES suddenly disappeared!