This hotel is a genuine piece of Singapore’s colonial past – it first opened in 1887 and hosted such historical figures as Noel Coward and Somerset Maugham. It’s said that the last tiger on the island was killed under a table in the Bar and Billiard Room. The Singapore Sling cocktail was also invented here, in the Long Bar. The Raffles Hotel was gazetted a national monument in 1995.

• Raffles Hotel - A Slice of Singapore History