Singapore
Six Senses Duxton
Urban Idyll
What it is
A 49-room stylish bolthole designed by British aesthete Anouska Hempel adjacent to a lush park.
What it isn't
Overly western. Located in Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar district, or Chinatown, the hotel is a trove of Eastern architecture.
What we think
When Six Senses took over this 19th century building, they did away with design expectations and went for what’s new and next. Guests can book either an entirely black and white Shophouse Room with a rounded barrel ceiling, or an aptly named Opium Room. The latter is larger, at 248 square feet, and took its cues from the dens that once proliferated round these parts, with blood red walls, four poster beds and abundant Chinese art. Both are tricked out with a Naturalmat organic mattress, Bose Bluetooth speakers and toiletries by the homeopathic The Organic Pharmacy, not to mention gratis WiFi. The hotel has curated several walks through the age-old streets that surround it; you’ll want to do Pearl’s Hill City Park Trek, which wends to some of Singapore’s most stylish coffee shops. It’s an ideal stroll before returning to the hotel’s antique-filled bar, where a yellow chrysanthemum tops their Escape to Kaifeng cordial.
You're here because
You’re fiercely committed to the environment, and Six Senses is too; the hotel was refurbished for minimal energy consumption and purchases all supplies and foodstuffs from local suppliers whenever possible.
The Moment
You love Chinese food as much as the next globetrotter, but you’ve never encountered anything like what’s in front of you at Yellow Pot, the hotel’s black and gold-sheathed restaurant. That’s because it’s almost edible art: chilled organic vine ripened tomatoes macerated in plum infusion; braised white cabbage with wolfberries and Shaoxing wine; a cartoonish, quivering dish of lemongrass and calamansi jelly. You’ll never look at Kung Pao chicken with the same lust again.
Location
On Duxton street (no surprise) in Tanjong Pagar district, mere blocks from Thian Hock King Temple and the Chinatown Heritage Centre, which has recreated the homes of original Chinese immigrants to the area in a de facto museum.