Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel is a heritage hotel at 1 Beach Road in Singapore's Downtown Core, founded in 1887 by the Armenian Sarkies brothers, Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak. Its three-storey Main Building was completed in 1899, and the Singapore Government declared the hotel a National Monument in 1987, a century after it opened. After a full restoration from 1989 to 1991, a second, three-phase restoration began in February 2017, and the hotel fully reopened on 1 August 2019 with 115 suites.

Raffles operates as a working hotel, so the suites and guest areas are for staying guests, but several parts of the property are open to everyone. The Raffles Arcade holds the Raffles Boutique and the Long Bar, where the Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 and where drinkers still toss peanut shells on the floor. Visitors who are not staying can also eat at the hotel's restaurants, such as the Tiffin Room and Raffles Courtyard, take afternoon tea in the Grand Lobby, or have a drink at the Writers Bar, named for the authors linked with the hotel. From Beach Road you can see the white facade and the cast-iron portico, a reproduction of the MacFarlane original installed during the 1989 to 1991 restoration.