Feb 7, 1969

There was a time long ago when Great World City was not a shopping centre but the sprawling carnival grounds of the Great World Amusement Park. This photo was taken during the Chinese New Year festivities, when kids would clamour to be taken on Ferris wheel or other rides while the adults watched Chinese or Malay operas. Owned by Lee Choon Yung but later sold to Shaw Organisation, the park started as nothing more than 150 wooden shacks in the 1920s, before becoming an amusement centre for low-income families in the 1930s.

After the war - when it was turned into a prison for Australian POWs - it enjoyed a grand re-opening in 1958, attended by Elizabeth Taylor. In its heyday it could draw up to 50,000 people in one night. But with the advent of television and cinemas, Great World died a natural death, shutting down completely in 1978.