Mail Order

AS CHRISTMAS DAY APPROACHES, the average Singaporean can be found struggling through the crowd of shoppers on Orchard Road, or thanking their lucky stars that online shopping exists. Some might even be using e-cards to deliver their season's greetings, But back in 1960, the Singapore post office handled much of the heavy lifting and sifting.

Neatly wrapped parcels and letters were all sorted by hand, a far cry from the automation that happens today - though it's not difficult to imagine the sheer volume of mail our post system has to process on a daily basis.

The first ever post office dates all the way back to 1819, to the founding of Singapore by Stamford Raffles. Located in the old Parliament House, it was operated by just three people. However, the demand for postal traffic grew as trade flourished and when the organisation was incorporated as SingPost in 1992, it boasted 808 postal outlets and 722 post boxes.