Dempsey Hill

Dempsey Hill is a dining and lifestyle enclave off Holland Road in the Tanglin planning area, set in the former Tanglin Barracks, which were built in the 1860s on the site of a nutmeg estate known as Mount Harriet. The barracks served as a British military headquarters before and after the Second World War, and from 1972 to 1989 the site was the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence and the Central Manpower Base. Dempsey Road takes its name from Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, who commanded the British Second Army in the Second World War and later led Allied land forces in South East Asia.

The site was handed back after 1989 and leased out in the 1990s, and the Singapore Land Authority began rebranding it as Tanglin Village in 2006; the name Dempsey Hill was made official in 2007. The former barrack blocks, spread across the Dempsey, Minden and Loewen clusters, hold restaurants, cafés and shops, and in 2015 the Singapore Land Authority and the Singapore Tourism Board tendered Blocks 17 and 18 Dempsey Road for retail and food use to strengthen the area as a lifestyle enclave. The old Officers' Mess has been used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2001, so not every building is open to visitors. The Singapore Botanic Gardens lie a short distance to the north-east.