SINGAPORE, March 9 — The Padang, along with the civic architecture surrounding it, has been added to Singapore’s tentative list for Unesco World Heritage sites, the National Heritage Board (NHB) said today.

The inclusion to the tentative list is the first step in a five- to six-year process in nominating the Padang as a potential Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) World Heritage site.

Collectively known as the Padang Civic Ensemble, the buildings that could be included in the bid are: the National Gallery Singapore, Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, the Arts House, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, as well as the Singapore Cricket Club and Singapore Recreation Club, among others, NHB said in a statement.

World Heritage Sites are designated by Unesco for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance. According to Unesco’s website, the sites are judged to contain “cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity”.

The bid to include the Padang in this exclusive list follows the successful inscription of the Singapore Botanic Gardens as Singapore’s first Unesco World Heritage site in 2015.

Why the Padang?

To become a World Heritage Site, the site must be of “outstanding universal value” and meet at least one out of 10 selection criteria.

NHB said the Padang Civic Ensemble is “most likely” to fulfil the criteria of being “an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history”.

The Padang Civic Ensemble is “an outstanding example of a British colonial civic square in the tropics”, said the statutory board.

“The coalescence of colonial-era and post-independence civic institutions within a single municipal area bears testament to the historically widespread phenomenon of decolonisation and the globally significant transition of long-held British territories to newly independent nations in the decades following World War II.”

NHB added that other than its high potential to meet the World Heritage criteria, the Padang Civic Ensemble also bears national and historical significance.

For example, it has a “high level of preservation”, having been gazetted as a national monument on August 9 last year.

According to the description of the Padang Civic Ensemble, which was included in the tentative list for Unesco World Heritage sites provided to the media, the site comprises:

• The former City Hall and former Supreme Court buildings — the current National Gallery Singapore

• Saint Andrew’s Cathedral

• Old Parliament House — now the Arts House

• Former Town Hall and Victoria Memorial Hall — the current Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall respectively

• The former Empress Place building — now the Asian Civilisations Museum

• Two sporting clubs — the Singapore Recreation Club and the Singapore Cricket Club

The site has also bore witness to key milestones in Singapore’s history, such as the installation of Yusof Ishak as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, a title for the head of state, as well as Singapore’s first National Day Parade.

Speaking to the media at a briefing at NHB’s office on Thursday, Jean Wee, the director for NHB’s preservation of sites and monuments division, said that the Padang Civic Ensemble had been part of previous study of potential sites that was done by the board in 2010.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens had been also been listed as a potential site in that study, and was eventually chosen as Singapore’s first nomination.

Wee stressed that the bid to nominate the Padang Civic Ensemble as a Unesco World Heritage site was still at an “exploratory stage”.

“At this point, we want to make sure that we can fully illustrate and justify the outstanding universal values of the site,” she said. — TODAY