Divine Times in Gotham City

When I was growing up in the 1960's I would always watch the Adam West/Burt Ward version of Batman. The setting was of course Gotham City and I have it in my mind that the city hall, where some of the action would take place, was somewhat of a dark and foreboding structure in an Art Deco style.

As it is, I find Art Deco items and buildings quite interesting and take notice when and where I find them.

Fast forward fifty-odd years and I find myself in Singapore. A place not necessarily renowned for its period architecture. That is, of course, unless there is something called a 'Now Deco' style. I say that  because, apart from the 1800's 'colonial-style' buildings which have been preserved to some degree and developed internally and vertically from below to above, nothing seems to hang around in Singapore for long.

Things get built and then, twenty years later, they get knocked down, subsumed and redeveloped into something grander and more 'now'. History is twenty years ago and ancient history is before the Second World War.

With that said, you can imagine my interest being piqued at the sight of a very recent construction, possessing the appearance of 1930's New York and sitting in mid-town Singapore.

The building I refer to is Parkview Square.

NOTE: I chose this image in an attempt to high-light the juxtaposition of  twenty-first century construction, in a mid-twentieth century style, overlooking a (potentially) nineteenth-century-created remnant. (Whew! What a mouthful)

By day, Parkview Square, obviously Art Deco, appears to be rather innocuous. It is only at night that the building takes on a more sinister persona.

The benign, slightly out of place, but none the less interesting, 'old' building turns into something quite suited to a Frankenstein or Austin Powers movie. Light shafts up the sides of the building lead the eye to lighted statues at the top appearing to survey all that which unfolds below.

From there a lit from within glass atrium at the summit gives the impression of being an observatory/control-centre for some malevolent ruler of the universe who could be either Austin Powers' Dr Evil, his cat and Mini-me or The Joker from Batman - The Dark Knight Rises.

One unsettling feature is that whenever you look up as you walk around Bugis and Arab St there is always this building looking down at you. A bit the Mona Lisa's eyes, it follows you around.

At ground level there is a courtyard which, again when viewed at night, could be the Reichstag of Nazi Germany. Statues of famous and long dead people encircle the courtyard and there appears no consistency of thought process as to who's likeness was chosen or why.

Which brings us neatly to what is on the inside.
 

The majority of the building is taken up with various diplomatic missions but it is the ground floor where the real show is. Divine wine-bar has to be one of the most attention grabbingly expensive 'drinking holes' I have ever frequented.

Opulent is probably a reasonable word to describe the layout. Over the top could be another. Either description certainly applies to the wine storage facility and bar pictured above. The lounge areas are no less so.

 On our visit we chose to have cocktails. The reason being that, at $25 a pop, they were the least expensive items in the list. Should your tastes turn to wine then I include a sample of those on offer and their cost....

...and as far as the age of wines go, the last time I had a 2003 vintage wine was in.....um....2004 I believe.

Now, as you will have noticed in the image of the bar above, the wine storage rack is a very tall affair. How does the bar-tender retrieve the wines when ordered I hear you ask? Well he/she doesn't. The 'wine fairy' does it.



So, in drinking, as in some areas of (other people's) life, all you need to make her perform is the cash.