Istana Tyersall is a demolished historical palace that used to be in the former Tyersall Park bound by Holland Road and Tyersall Road near the Singapore Botanic Gardens in Singapore. The land it was formerly built on is currently restricted from the public. The demolished palace had long been confused with the dilapidated Istana Woodneuk due to its proximity, which was located on another smaller hill not far away. The difference with the roof tiles of these former palaces is that while Woodneuk was blue, Tyersall was red. History William "Royal Billy" Napier, the former Lieutenant-Governor of Labuan and first lawyer in Singapore, once had a house built in 1854 at the Tyersall estate of 67 acres in Singapore. Upon his retirement and departure back to England in 1857, his house at Tyersall was put on sale by Boustead & Co. in March 1857 and would later be bought over by Wan Abu Bakar in 1860. Abu Bakar would later move his residence there from Telok Blangah upon his reign as Temenggong of Johor after the death of his father Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim in 1862. Temenggong Abu Bakar was proclaimed as the Maharaja of Johor on 30 June 1868, and was eventually proclaimed as the 21st Sultan of Johor on 13 February 1886. Later on, he decided that it was time to build a new palace in Singapore to commemorate his ascension. In 1890, Sultan Abu Bakar had Napier's former house demolished to make way for his upcoming palace. Architecture Dato Yahaya Awaluddin, an architect and a member of the Sultan Abu Bakar's Cabinet was deployed to design the plans according to the wishes of the Sultan's 3rd wife Sultanah Fatimah. Sultanah Fatimah was a Chinese woman of Cantonese heritage whose name was Wong Ah Gew before she married Sultan Abu Bakar. The Sultan employed the service of his long-time acquaintance Wong Ah Fook, a Chinese contractor to oversee the building of the palace. Wong had already built many of Johor's heritage buildings prior to his work assignment in Singapore and was a close friend to Sultanah Fatimah who shared the same common surname and dialect. Howarth Erskine carried out most of the ironwork, with some portions of the work done by H.C. Hogan, and the upholstering of furniture and equipments was provided by John Little & Co. Sultana Fatimah did not live to see the completion of the palace