St Peter’s Hall (SPH) was started by the Diocese of Singapore in March 1954, and the founding Warden was a Norwegian missionary, The Revd Canon Dr Sverre Holth. Having been a missionary in China, he spoke fluent Mandarin, and was even the founding pastor of St Andrew’s Cathedral Mandarin Congregation in 1954.
He was a man of courage who had tried to protect local Chinese villagers from invading Japanese soldiers in 1940, and was taken out into the snow, with his three children watching from the window, shot in the back and left to die! But he survived, the bullet never having been removed!
(See Wikipedia article on Sverre Holth)
St Peter’s Hall was from the beginning mandated to prepare people for ordination and for ministry in the Anglican church. It was always associated with Trinity College (later renamed to Trinity Theological College, TTC) of which the Anglican Church was one of the founding members. SPH was initially located in Woodsville (what is now called St Andrew’s Village at Potong Pasir). Later in 1960, for the sake of shortening the commute to TTC, SPH was moved to Mount Sophia to be adjacent to TTC. This was SPH’s home for the next 4 decades until 2001.
When TTC vacated Mount Sophia to move to Upper Bukit Timah at the turn of the millennium, SPH moved with TTC. SPH now occupies space within one wing of the TTC hostel at the Upper Bukit Timah Road campus. Nevertheless, it continues to retain certain distinctives, being the only Hall in TTC with its own small and beautiful Chapel (see a description of the stained glass panel in Our Symbols), office, library and training room. Set against a backdrop of the densely forested Bukit Timah Hill and cradled in the beautiful campus of TTC, SPH is richly blessed in its current season to provide a conducive context and environment for learning and formation.
St Peter’s Hall 