The EMP site was first occupied in the early 14th century CE. It continued to be used during the Melaka sultanate period (1400–1511 CE), and under the succeeding Johor-Riau era. A well-known Portuguese map of Singapore printed in 1604 has a word, xabandaria, which is a Portuguese version of a Malay version of Persian words meaning “lord of the harbour”. The shahbandar was an important official in Malay ports. Melaka had four shahbandars, each with authority over foreign merchants from different places. This map proves that Singapore was still a port visited by enough foreign merchants that the Johor sultanate found it necessary to station a high official there (Gibson-Hill 1956: 54; Miksic, 1985: 29).
The excavation was carried out at the location which was formerly the Empress Place Food Centre. Proposed in 1972 and set up between 1973 and 1974 (see NAS, FC076 “Planning of Official Opening of Market/Hawker Centre”; NAS, H/FC/004 Vol. 2 “Empress Place Food Centre”). The buildings facing the site comprise the former Marine Police Station right on the bank of the dig site. To the north of the station was the former Colonial Secretariat. The building dated back to 1864 when the construction of the building commenced, nine years after the proposal was approved. It was completed in December 1867 at the cost of $53,000, $3,000 more than the estimated cost (see CO 1069/484). John Frederick Adolphus McNair designed the building (Liu 1996: 12-19). The building was originally slated to be used as a courthouse, and purported functioned as a courthouse for approximately a decade. The building later became the site of government offices. Between 1955 and August 1965, plans were made to carry out repair works to the Marine Police Station and outhouses at Empress Place (see NAS, 337/55). The authors of this report were unable to determine when the Marine Police began to utilize one of the extensions at Empress Place Building. Three extensions had been added in 1880, 1908, and 1920. The Government Office assumed the name of Empress Place Building in 1907 following a Municipal Council order to name the walkway in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s passing; the building later took the same name (see “The Empress Place building” and Omar, 2016). A newspaper article of 1937 mentions the barracks at Empress Place as the police was exploring the construction of quarters in the Kallang basin area (see The Straits Times, 29 October 1937, page 16). Another article in 1950 accompanied by an image refers to a farewell ceremony at the Marine Police Station at Empress Place (see “Farewell to C.O., The Straits Times, 29 November 1950, p. 4). A 1951 newspaper article in the Singapore Standard describes the role of the Marine Police stationed at Empress Place headquarters. The Marine police was well-funded with what amounted to a million dollars spent on equipping the division in one year alone. The division had a strength of “435 officers and men” which represented 10 percent of then Singapore’s police force (see Singapore Standard, 10 December 1951, p. 6). The Marine Police was expecting to have a newly established Criminal Intelligence Department in the following year. The police station apparently “doubled” as a “port office for boatmen in the area” (see The Straits Times, 1 October 1983, p. 20). Other than government offices which continued at the Empress Place buildings through the 1980s, there was at least one unusual fixture in the form of a kiosk run by Singapore’s Art Society which was located inside the Marine Police compound (see The Singapore Free Press, 15 June 1955, p. 5). This shop appropriated the use of a pavilion next to the station (see The Straits Times, 8 April 1989, p. 22). The shop was purportedly renowned for its Malayan arts and crafts. The pavement and walkway between the Empress Place buildings and the Singapore River did see any major construction until the 1970s when plans to construct hawker centres were conceived and executed.
A news article dated to 3 November 1971 refers to the plan for two “super hawker centres” to be established along the Singapore river, one at Empress Place and the second at Collyer Quay. The Marine Police headquarters or station at Empress Place had already been vacated in 1970 and the operations moved to the Kallang basin area. The vacated premises were returned to Mindef. The two super hawker centres formed part of the government scheme to “clear all hawkers off the streets” (see The New Nation, 3 November 1971, p. 3). Two buildings were expected to be demolished to make way for these centres. The centres were slated to open in 1973. In 1972, the police station at Empress Place was demolished to make way for the hawker centre “which would be lined with 98 hawker stalls similar to those at the Satay Club along the Esplanade” (see New Nation, 16 April 1973, p. 5). What were touted “scenic food stalls” were expected to open soon at the new hawker centre named Empress Place Food Centre (see New Nation, 23 August 1973, p. 2). The food centre was subsequently opened on 3 September 1973 by the Parliamentary Secretary (Labour) and MP for Stamford, Mr. Fong Sip Chee. The cost of the centre was placed at $590,000 (see The Straits Times, 3 September 1973, p. 9). Between 1983 and 1984, a total of 87 hawkers (45 from Boat Quay Food Centre and 42 from Emplace Place Food Centre) were moved to a new location at “the junction of North Boat Quay and Hallpike Street”; this had resulted from the construction of the MRT tunnel linking Raffles Place and City Hall stations (see The Straits Times, 10 September 1982, p. 10). This signalled the start of the changes to the area where the food centre was located. Four days later, the new food transit food centre opened (see The Straits Times, 14 September 1983, p. 13). It would appear that a section of the Empress Place Food Centre was demolished in 1983 to make way for the MRT construction, but the remaining stalls and structures stayed in situ until 1993 when the centre as well the transit food centre at Boat Quay were demolished.
Other than the Marine Police station and pavilion and the later food centre, there were no other structures constructed in situ at the excavation site. When the team started the project at Empress Place, the food centre had already been demolished. That no major structures with deep foundations and piping were constructed at the location of the excavation has allowed for a pristine archaeological site with largely undisturbed stratigraphy, especially for the precolonial layers.