The Casemates (Gunners’ Shelter)
Casemates, sometimes called ‘Gunner’s Shelters’ are buildings built to provide accommodation and storage space. Some Casemates housed guns as well.
The photograph on the left shows the Shelter during the 1930s. Notice the Battery Command Post on Mount Siloso.
The photograph on the right shows the Casemates looking rather dilapidated in 1993. A ventilation stack can be seen in the top left of the photograph.
The type of shelter built at Fort Siloso would have been familiar to gunners around the world. In Singapore, similar buildings can be found on Mount Serapong and at the Labrador Battery at Tanjong Berlayer.
LEFT The Shelter photographed in 1999 .
Notice the boot-scrapers, Each room has one at the door.
RIGHT: Detail above each door and window of the Casemates. Even military architects wanted to show a little style.
Left & RIGHT: Inside the Casemate room nearest Mount Siloso. There is a ventilation shaft is in the far wall on the photograph to the right.
Each room was originally a seprate entity and not connected to any other. Unfortunately, the lower three rooms are now interconnected by doors cut into the walls between them. This gives visitors a false impression of what the Casemates should look like.