The former C J Koh Law Library building stands in the historic NUS Bukit Timah Campus at 469 Bukit Timah Road, near Singapore Botanic Gardens. But there is an important October 2026 update: the C J Koh Law Library itself is no longer operating here. NUS Libraries confirms that it relocated to University Town at Kent Ridge on 19 January 2026, while NUS Law likewise shifted its teaching operations to University Town for Semester 2 of the 2025/26 academic year. This distinction between a landmark building and its former occupant makes the photograph unusually instructive.
The site began as Raffles College in 1928 with 43 students, was officially opened in 1929, witnessed changes during the Second World War and became part of the long story leading to the National University of Singapore. Today the campus remains a place of higher education, including the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Its heritage architecture connects a reader’s 2026 walk to almost a century of education, but its present academic uses must be described accurately.
At a glance: NUS Bukit Timah in October 2026
- Photographed building: historic former C J Koh Law Library, NUS Bukit Timah Campus, media item 275403.
- Campus heritage address: 469 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259756.
- Present academic contact in the precinct: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at 469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772.
- Raffles College classes: began 21 June 1928 with 43 students.
- Formal opening: 22 July 1929, under Governor Sir Hugh Clifford.
- Major institutional transition: Raffles College merged with King Edward VII College of Medicine to establish the University of Malaya in 1949.
- University of Singapore: the Singapore campus became the University of Singapore in 1962.
- National monument: six historic buildings in the former Raffles College complex were gazetted together in 2009.
- Critical 2026 update: NUS Law and the C J Koh Law Library relocated to Kent Ridge/University Town, while Library@BTC provides a separate library outpost for policy-school users.
- Transport: Botanic Gardens MRT (CC19/DT9) and appropriate public bus or pedestrian access.
- Photo date: uploaded 18 October 2026; a contemporary view of historic architecture, not a photograph of 1928.
1. Why the word ‘former’ is essential in the photo caption
A useful photograph often creates a naming problem. The October 2026 eduKateSG media item identifies the historic building as the former C J Koh Law Library. The building remains a recognisable structure at Bukit Timah, yet the library service was moved to a different NUS campus before the photograph was uploaded.
Without the word ‘former’, a parent, student or researcher could visit the wrong site expecting to use the Law Library. The building name is valuable as heritage information; the library’s current operating address is a separate and more time-sensitive fact. NUS’s own library page identifies the 19 January 2026 move to University Town at Kent Ridge.
This is not a small editorial detail. It is a live example of how institutions and buildings can separate over time. A university retains and adapts a historic campus; a faculty or library changes location to serve current needs; a building keeps its history even if a familiar name stops describing its present function.
Our October photograph should therefore be described as a physical record of the former library building at Bukit Timah. The current C J Koh Law Library is at 20 College Avenue West, NUS University Town, Singapore 138529, according to its updated NUS page. A 2026 visitor must distinguish the two destinations.
2. Raffles College: 43 students at the start in 1928
Before it became an NUS campus, this site was Raffles College. The National Heritage Board’s Bukit Timah Heritage Trail dates the first lessons to 21 June 1928 and records a first cohort of just 43 students. It had been conceived as a college teaching arts and sciences in British Malaya, providing a local higher-education path where many previously had to seek advanced study abroad.
The original plan developed in connection with the centenary of Sir Stamford Raffles’ arrival in Singapore. Public and private contributors supported the proposal over several years. The National Heritage Board records that donors included Oei Tiong Ham, Manasseh Meyer and Eu Tong Sen, with support from the government and other individuals and organisations.
The idea is significant for more than its colonial-era name. A permanent tertiary institution represented investment in specialist teachers, collections, laboratories and a student community. The first cohort of 43 makes the eventual scale of Singapore’s higher education easier to appreciate without turning the number into a competition.
A good student explanation might say: ‘The present Bukit Timah campus began as Raffles College in 1928, when a small arts-and-sciences college helped expand local higher education.’ The figure and founding date should be verified from the NHB Bukit Timah Heritage Trail: Former Raffles College, not inferred from our 2026 photograph.
3. Why 1928 and 1929 are both correct dates
Some school histories appear to have conflicting establishment dates. At this site, the distinction is straightforward once events are named: Raffles College started classes in June 1928, and Governor Sir Hugh Clifford officially declared it open on 22 July 1929. A ceremonial inauguration is not necessarily the first day students attend lessons.
The difference provides a short but powerful lesson in historical method. Before asking which date is right, ask what happened on each date. One source might refer to the beginning of teaching, another to completion of buildings, and another to a formal opening attended by public officials. A timeline can include all three if the evidence supports them.
That same logic helps with other schools in this October 2026 series. Nanyang Girls’ High School was founded in 1917 but moved to Linden Drive in 1999; National Junior College began in 1969 and was officially opened in 1970. History becomes clearer when we preserve distinct events.
This photograph was uploaded in 2026. It is a record of a later state of the campus, not a visual primary source for either 1928 or 1929. The right pairing is a documented chronology alongside the contemporary exterior image, each labelled for its evidence value.
4. An unusual university campus beside the Botanic Gardens
The old Raffles College buildings sit alongside the Singapore Botanic Gardens, within the broader Bukit Timah and Kheam Hock Road neighbourhood. Their setting differs dramatically from a high-density downtown educational block. Large trees, green spaces, courts and gardens formed part of the planned academic environment.
According to the National Heritage Board, the campus was designed by architects Cyril Farey and Graham Dawbarn, selected through an architectural competition. The design used quadrangles, covered arcades and large windows, combining features of European college architecture with adaptations for tropical conditions.
The heritage architecture is an important part of the institution’s history. Shaded verandahs and covered connections help explain how buildings were intended to respond to rain, heat and movement between classrooms. Students can compare these ideas with the design of a modern, air-conditioned teaching block elsewhere in Singapore.
However, a photograph of one library building cannot prove the environmental performance of an entire campus. A careful discussion distinguishes observed architecture from the historical design intentions described in heritage documents. That is both good geography and good building-history writing.
5. Quadrangles, covered walkways and the idea of a campus
A quadrangle is a space framed by buildings, often associated with universities and residential colleges. At Bukit Timah, the two historic quadrangles and surrounding buildings create a sequence of green, sheltered academic spaces. They explain why the site feels like a coherent campus rather than a collection of unrelated offices.
The 2026 building photograph fits into this landscape but does not show every courtyard or walkway. A visitor with lawful access and a site map can observe how buildings and open spaces relate. A student studying architecture could ask whether the design provides shade, whether routes are legible and how communal spaces contribute to encounters between learners.
Names in the former Raffles College precinct also preserve donor histories. Oei Tiong Ham, Manasseh Meyer and Eu Tong Sen are not simply labels; they connect particular structures with civic philanthropy and the financial work required to establish a college.
For a useful writing task, pair a map with a paragraph explaining why physical layout matters in a place of higher learning. Consider circulation, climate, interaction and institutional identity. Then support historical claims with the NHB Former Raffles College national monument history, instead of assigning unverified intentions to the building photographed in October 2026.
6. War interrupted ordinary educational life on this site
The old campus lived through the Second World War. The National Heritage Board records that teaching ceased as conflict intensified, and the buildings took on medical uses during the emergency. They later became facilities under Japanese occupation after Singapore fell in 1942.
That history is important precisely because it reminds us that a campus can serve very different functions across its existence. A building designed for students may be adapted for wartime care or military administration. The function of the space changes even while parts of the structure survive.
It would be inappropriate to use a calm modern photograph to romanticise the occupation or imply that every visible room was used for a particular wartime purpose. Only documented details should be linked to a specific building or episode. The heritage account supplies a site-level record; an October exterior image does not provide direct evidence of events in 1942.
A student can analyse the change as a sequence of functions: college, wartime emergency use, occupation, post-war education. This is an effective way to show that institutional history and building history overlap but are not identical. The shape of an arch can survive many changes in the human activities taking place beneath it.
7. 1949: from Raffles College to the University of Malaya
The merger of Raffles College and King Edward VII College of Medicine formed the University of Malaya in 1949. This joined strands of arts-and-sciences and medical higher education under a new institutional arrangement. The change also reflected the growing scale and complexity of university education in the region.
The University of Malaya operated across Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. By 1962 the Singapore branch had become the University of Singapore. Those changes in identity were connected to the political and educational development of the region, rather than to a simple decision to repaint a campus sign.
For a student researching university history, a useful question is: ‘How is a university different from the premises where it first taught?’ A university may merge, split, rename departments or move to a larger site, while older buildings retain traces of its earlier identity. That is why the word ‘campus’ should not be used as a synonym for the university as a whole.
The photographed Bukit Timah building belongs to this longer institutional chain. Its present identity is associated with the NUS campus, but the physical site predates the National University of Singapore itself. Carefully identifying those layers prevents students from assuming that everything visible was built under the modern NUS name.
8. 1981: why the main university moved toward Kent Ridge
The university expanded over the decades. The National Heritage Board records that NUS relocated to its Kent Ridge campus in 1981, while the former Raffles College compound continued to be used educationally by other institutions and later NUS entities. This was not the end of teaching at Bukit Timah; it was a change in the location of the university’s main activities.
Kent Ridge offered a different configuration for a growing comprehensive university, with faculties, laboratories and facilities assembled in a broad new landscape. Bukit Timah became a historic site that could accommodate different forms of education rather than a deserted relic.
This distinction is especially important because NUS in 2026 still uses more than one campus. A person heading to a faculty building in Kent Ridge should not travel automatically to Bukit Timah merely because they find the university’s historical page. Similarly, the existence of a historic NUS building does not mean the entire university operates there.
A map activity can show the older Bukit Timah grounds and Kent Ridge as separate nodes in Singapore’s education geography. Add the years of key moves and the reasons documented by sources. The result is a story about institutional expansion and changing land-use requirements.
9. The 2005 and 2006 return of NUS Law to the old precinct
In the mid-2000s, the government decided to return the former Raffles College premises to NUS. The Faculty of Law and the C J Koh Law Library subsequently occupied the Bukit Timah site. NUS Libraries records that the Law Library returned to its earlier home in August 2006.
For two decades, many readers associated this part of Bukit Timah with legal education and a distinguished law collection. That association was real, but it was not timeless. Faculty location is a changing administrative fact. Even a legally and architecturally significant campus cannot guarantee the permanent location of a particular programme.
NUS Law’s own December 2025 announcement explains the reason for the next change: the return to Kent Ridge would bring the law community closer to the wider university, increasing possibilities for interdisciplinary learning and collaboration. This is an institutional explanation, not a claim that Bukit Timah had lost its heritage value.
The chronology therefore has an elegant pattern: the Law Library at Bukit Timah before 1980, at Kent Ridge in 1980, back at Bukit Timah in 2006, and at University Town in January 2026. An October 2026 photograph taken at Bukit Timah shows the building after the latest move, which is why our caption explicitly says ‘former’.
10. C J Koh: a philanthropist remembered through a library
The library was named for Koh Choon Joo, commonly known as C J Koh. NUS records the renaming on 1 January 2001 and an official opening under the new name on 27 February 2002. His contribution supported improvements to legal learning resources and helped build a collection used by students and researchers.
A named library is a form of institutional memory. It can preserve the story of a donor and a field of scholarship long after collections and services move. The name travelling with the library to Kent Ridge in 2026 illustrates this directly: the library’s identity is not permanently fixed to the Bukit Timah building.
The heritage significance of the former library building and the continuing academic function of the current Law Library are two related but different facts. The former concerns architecture and place; the latter concerns collections, people and access to legal scholarship. Neither should erase the other.
For students, a thought-provoking exercise is to list three things that can move with a library—books, staff and services—and three that cannot move in the same way—a specific historic façade, the surrounding precinct and a building’s protected site status. This helps explain the difference between intangible institutional continuity and the material geography of learning.
11. Six national-monument buildings in one education landscape
In 2009, six buildings at the former Raffles College complex were collectively gazetted as a National Monument. The National Heritage Board identifies the Oei Tiong Ham, Manasseh Meyer, Eu Tong Sen, Federal, C J Koh Law Library and Li Ka Shing buildings. The designation protects an ensemble rather than one isolated decorative façade.
That grouping matters. Architectural value at this site is partly a relationship between structures, open spaces and the original college plan. A single restored block might look handsome, but the significance is greater when one can still understand how the buildings formed an academic environment.
The old Law Library is therefore a historic building even though library services moved in 2026. Its monument status does not guarantee unrestricted public entry. Conservation, university operations and visitor access are governed by different considerations. A reader should never interpret a heritage listing as permission to walk into a functioning campus building.
The October image contributes a contemporary point in the monument’s visual record. Its archival usefulness depends on an accurate caption and stable source file. Naming the building and date carefully is more valuable than adding exaggerated language about architecture or pretending that a present view reveals past events directly.
12. What actually moved in January 2026?
Two closely related changes occurred around the turn of the academic term. NUS Law announced that, from January 2026, its teaching and student life would operate at 20 College Avenue West, University Town, Kent Ridge. Separately, NUS Libraries records the C J Koh Law Library’s relocation to University Town as effective on 19 January 2026.
The exact library date is particularly useful for a reader in October 2026. A website still naming ‘C J Koh Law Library, Bukit Timah’ without qualification would be sending readers to a former site. Conversely, a heritage article that erases the Bukit Timah building because the service moved would lose an important part of the university’s history.
The Law Library at University Town continues to carry the C J Koh name and legal research function. NUS publishes current visitor guidance for the new premises. At Bukit Timah, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy remains one of the active institutional uses of the historic complex.
The correct answer to ‘Where is the C J Koh Law Library?’ is therefore Kent Ridge. The answer to ‘Where is the former C J Koh Law Library building?’ is the historic Bukit Timah campus. Both answers can be true, and the October photo makes their distinction vivid.
13. What is still operating at NUS Bukit Timah?
NUS’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy gives its address as 469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772. Its programmes, research work and academic community are a major current presence at the site. This is an active school of public policy, not simply an old college preserved for photographs.
NUS Libraries also operates Library@BTC, a separate library outpost in Block B of the policy-school area. Its page describes reserve readings and other support for the policy school, including a collection point for materials obtained from other NUS libraries. This is not the relocated C J Koh Law Library under a new label.
These distinctions make the article genuinely useful to a current student. ‘Library at Bukit Timah’ is ambiguous unless the visitor names the service needed. The policy-school outpost is at Bukit Timah; the full C J Koh Law Library is at University Town. A person attending a LKYSPP event should follow the policy school’s directions, while someone borrowing law materials should consult the NUS Law Library’s new location and services.
Because NUS facilities can be reserved for their communities, confirm access and opening hours before visiting. The existence of a public-facing campus photograph or a heritage description does not override operating rules.
14. Botanic Gardens MRT: locating the historic university precinct
The NUS Library@BTC directions identify Botanic Gardens MRT (CC19/DT9) as a convenient approach to the Bukit Timah campus. Depending on the route, the visitor may walk through the Botanic Gardens area or use a public bus along Bukit Timah Road. The school also identifies bus services stopping near the campus entrance.
This detail is worth recording because ‘NUS’ by itself often sends newcomers toward Kent Ridge. In 2026 that assumption is especially problematic for anyone trying to find a former faculty or library building. A journey planner needs the exact campus and ideally a building address.
The campus sits in a distinctive pocket between the major road corridor and the Botanic Gardens. Its streetscape combines university land use, mature greenery and heritage buildings. A place-based walk can compare the formal university quadrangles with the much larger public landscape of the gardens without treating the two as one facility.
A traveller must still check current entrances, weather, pedestrian access and any event restrictions. A heritage trail marker identifies a historic place; it does not make all adjoining grounds open to unrestricted exploration. Public streets and formally accessible areas are the correct default for independent observation.
15. A built-environment lesson: why arches and verandahs matter
NHB’s description of the former Raffles College highlights deep verandahs, arcades and extensive windows. Such elements had practical importance in a tropical climate where shade and ventilation shape comfort. They also gave the campus a consistent visual rhythm, helping independent blocks feel like parts of a coordinated academic setting.
To study this accurately, begin with observation: which surfaces are covered, where are openings, how do corridors connect and where do trees shade buildings? Then separate observation from design claims. A deep veranda may provide shade, but its actual effectiveness varies with orientation, airflow, weather and later alterations.
Next compare with a contemporary university block. Modern mechanical ventilation, accessibility requirements and digital infrastructure can change the way space is designed. The two approaches are not automatically better or worse; they respond to different constraints and periods. A student who asks what problem an architectural feature solves is thinking more deeply than one who merely calls a building ‘colonial’.
The October 2026 library-building photo should be a starting point for such questions, not a pretext to assert design specifications that cannot be measured from a single image. Use the monument record for verified design history.
16. A worked history exercise: correcting the sentence on a visitor map
Consider this draft description: ‘The C J Koh Law Library at Bukit Timah, established in 1929, is where NUS Law students attend classes in 2026.’ Almost every part needs qualification. The building belongs to the Raffles College heritage complex whose formal opening was in 1929. But the Law Library’s institutional history began much later, and both the faculty and library shifted to Kent Ridge by January 2026.
A reliable rewrite is: ‘The former C J Koh Law Library building is part of NUS’s historic Bukit Timah Campus, which developed from Raffles College. The Law Library and NUS Law moved to University Town at Kent Ridge in January 2026.’ Add separate source links for the monument and the relocation notice.
The error is a classic example of assigning the age of one entity to another. A building’s original construction, a college’s opening, a faculty’s founding and a library’s renaming are not the same event. Writers must decide which noun each date modifies.
The photo then becomes useful evidence for a simpler claim: ‘In October 2026, the historic former library building remained part of the physical Bukit Timah campus.’ That is proportionate to what the image and media record can actually support. Precision strengthens the narrative rather than making it less readable.
17. A geography assignment: two NUS campuses, two different destinations
Draw a two-column map comparison. The first column is NUS Bukit Timah Campus at 469 Bukit Timah Road, near the Botanic Gardens. The second is NUS University Town at 20 College Avenue West in the Kent Ridge ecosystem. Name one academic or library function in each as of October 2026.
For Bukit Timah, list the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Library@BTC, supported by their official pages. For University Town, list NUS Law and the relocated C J Koh Law Library. The difference is institutional, not simply a matter of how long a train ride takes.
Next ask students why a large university might distribute activities across several sites or consolidate a faculty in a new location. Explain that the university itself cites interdisciplinary learning, student experiences and collaboration as reasons for the law move. Avoid inventing financial or land-policy motives that have not been documented.
The final stage is to mark key historical layers on the Bukit Timah map: Raffles College, the later university identities and the protected monument ensemble. This demonstrates that the same piece of land can be a contemporary workplace, an academic campus and a nationally significant heritage site at the same time.
18. What the October 2026 photo cannot tell us
It cannot tell us which researchers occupied the building on the day of the photograph, which rooms are accessible to the public, whether a library shelf contains a particular title, or where a present-day law student should attend class. Those are administrative and operational questions requiring current official sources.
It also cannot show the entire monument complex. Six protected buildings and their spatial relationships are larger than a single exterior frame. Readers should consult a site plan and the NHB monument record before making conclusions about quadrangles, donor buildings and campus orientation.
The photograph does offer something unique: a high-resolution contemporary image associated with a precise date and subject. Once its caption acknowledges the 2026 relocation, it becomes a small piece of local historical evidence that can be compared with earlier official archive photographs and future records.
Good digital heritage writing does not inflate the claims of a photograph. It allows the image to show the present built environment, while maps establish location, official records establish historical events and university notices establish current service information. Each is strong when used for the right purpose.
19. Seven questions for a thoughtful campus history visit
Question one: Where is the former Raffles College campus, and which side of the Botanic Gardens does it occupy? Use official maps to identify the site rather than relying on the modern university’s name alone.
Question two: What is the difference between classes beginning in 1928 and the college’s formal opening in 1929? Explain the dates separately.
Question three: Why did donors matter to the college’s development? Use the historical account rather than invented stories about their personal motives.
Question four: What did the 1949 merger change about higher education, and how did the University of Singapore later emerge in 1962?
Question five: Which buildings were gazetted as a national monument in 2009, and why is protecting a group of buildings different from protecting one façade?
Question six: Where did NUS Law and the C J Koh Law Library move in 2026, and where is the current Library@BTC? Write the different locations clearly.
Question seven: Which of these facts can be observed in the October photograph, and which need documentary evidence? The answer to the last question is the heart of responsible source-based learning.
20. Why this is a Bukit Timah education story, not just an NUS story
The Bukit Timah school corridor contains different kinds of learning institutions. Along the main roads and local streets are secondary schools, a junior college and historic university premises. The structures did not all arise at the same time or for the same purpose, yet their locations now form a recognisable educational landscape.
NUS Bukit Timah adds the tertiary-education layer to this collection. Nanyang Girls’ High School, National Junior College, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Hwa Chong Institution and ACS (Barker Road) illustrate primary, secondary and pre-university histories, while Raffles College shows an earlier phase of university education.
The photograph of the former C J Koh Law Library becomes particularly valuable in this sequence because it captures a building at the exact year of a major academic relocation. Future readers looking back on 2026 can understand why the same name appears on a protected Bukit Timah building and a functioning Kent Ridge library.
That is the promise of the eduKateSG photo series: the reader begins with a real school or university exterior and leaves knowing how the place came to be, which programme or institution now operates there, and what needs to be checked before visiting.
21. Frequently asked questions
Where is the former C J Koh Law Library building?
It is within the historic NUS Bukit Timah Campus at 469 Bukit Timah Road, part of the former Raffles College national monument ensemble.
Where is the C J Koh Law Library operating in October 2026?
At NUS University Town, 20 College Avenue West, Kent Ridge. NUS Libraries gives 19 January 2026 as the relocation date.
Did the NUS Faculty of Law also relocate?
Yes. NUS Law states that it began operating at its University Town campus in January 2026 after leaving Bukit Timah.
Is there still a library at Bukit Timah?
Yes. NUS runs Library@BTC, a separate outpost supporting the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and interlibrary services. It is not the relocated C J Koh Law Library.
What is the address of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy?
469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772, according to its current contact information.
When did Raffles College start?
Classes began on 21 June 1928 with 43 students. Its formal opening was on 22 July 1929.
Was the site used during the Second World War?
Yes. Heritage records describe emergency medical uses and subsequent Japanese military use during the occupation period.
When did Raffles College become part of the University of Malaya?
In 1949, through its merger with King Edward VII College of Medicine.
When was the national monument declared?
The set of six former Raffles College buildings was gazetted as a national monument in 2009.
What is the closest MRT reference?
Botanic Gardens MRT (CC19/DT9) is identified in NUS’s current Bukit Timah directions. Confirm the path to your exact destination.
Is this campus open to walk into freely?
Do not assume so. It remains an operating institutional campus; check visitor rules, events and access with NUS and the relevant school.
Why is the October 2026 photo important?
It records a historically significant building after the Law Library’s 2026 move, illustrating why the words ‘former building’ and ‘current library’ need separate location information.
22. Sources, photo details and related eduKate reading
- Campus history and architecture: NHB Former Raffles College national monument history; NHB Bukit Timah Heritage Trail: Former Raffles College.
- 2026 relocation, crucial correction: NUS C J Koh Law Library history and new address; NUS Law’s December 2025 relocation announcement; NUS Library@BTC current services.
- Current Bukit Timah academic institution: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy directions; NUS Bukit Timah Campus route and bus information.
- Existing eduKate history coverage: NUS Bukit Timah Campus heritage and the 2026 Faculty of Law move; Raffles College’s first 43 students; History of Singapore | Bukit Timah.
- Connected October 2026 school area series: ACS Barker Road and Newton, previous October 2026 photo guide; Hwa Chong Institution’s High School gate.
- Photo record: eduKateSG WordPress library media ID 275403, uploaded 18 October 2026, titled ‘Former C J Koh Law Library Building at NUS Bukit Timah Campus’.
Editorial note, 18 October 2026: The header depicts the former C J Koh Law Library building, not the library’s current 2026 operating site. NUS Law and the C J Koh Law Library have moved to Kent Ridge/University Town. Campus services and visitor arrangements should be verified from current NUS information.