Raffles Statue & Landing Site

The marker is a white polymarble statue of Raffles unveiled in 1972, cast from the same 1887 figure as the dark bronze original that stands a few minutes away at Empress Place. It is an open-air riverside spot with no gate, no ticket and no fixed hours, so there is nothing to book and nothing to pay. What most people miss is that the white statue here and the bronze one by Victoria Theatre are two versions of the same monument, worth seeing together.

It is a short walk along the river from the Merlin at Merlion Park. The site is directly across the river from Raffles Place MRT — take Exit G, walk to the water and cross Cavenagh Bridge to the north bank, roughly a five-minute walk, rather than the longer approach signs point to.

The white statue is a copy, not the original: the dark bronze figure by Thomas Woolner, unveiled in 1887 and nicknamed "orang besi" (iron man), stands about three minutes' walk away in front of Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. Visitors who photograph only the riverside white one and leave have seen the marker but missed the older, more significant sculpture just up the road.