Pub. Times Books International, ISBN 9971 65 231 5
p. 232
Date 1985 Architect: Timothy Seow & Partners
Killiney House was built by Dr Thomas Oxley in 1842 on his return from Malacca in 1841; later, in 1847, he built another and even bigger house, the Pavilion. He had bought an uncleared jungle of 70.7 ha from the East India Company in 1837 as an estate for his nutmeg plantation. Around 1890, Killiney House was bought by Sir Reuben Manasseh Meyer and it was largely rebuilt, as Bell View. In the 1850s, in preparation for his retirement, parts of the Oxley Estate were sold off and, by 1858, 20 houses or so had been built, including some in St. Thomas Walk.
All of these houses were typical of the expansionary attitudes of the mid-19th century suburbanites. Notwithstanding the grandness of most of these large suburban villas, with their porte-cocheres and servants' quarters, they were simple simple and functional buildings which responded sensibly to the climate in their use of raised floors and verandahs.
The present Bell View is typical of another form of expansion, a century later. The villa has given way to the condominium and the privacy (to the extent of exclusivity) has given way to communal amenities in the form of swimming pools, barbecue pits, saunas and tennis courts.