Eden Hall was built in 1904 for Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh, on a four and a half-acre plot, which used to be part of a nutmeg plantation. Manasseh did not himself live in Eden Hall on its completion, but rented it to Mrs Campbell, who ran it as a boarding house. A wide verandah runs round the house, both upstairs and down.  

In 1916 Ezekiel Manasseh married an English widow, Elsie Trilby Bath, whose husband had been a mining engineer in Pahang.  They moved to Eden Hall with Trilby's two children Molly and Vivian.  Not much is known about Molly, apart from the fact that she married a renowned surgeon, Arthur Dickson Wright, of St Mary's Hospital, London.

The story of Eden Hall, however, is primarily the story of Vivian Bath.  After attending school in Australia and England, he returned to Singapore and joined Lewis and Peate, a firm of rubber brokers.  In common with the other well-heeled expatriates of the time, his social life revolved around horses and house parties.  

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Vivian Bath joined the Singapore Volunteer Forces.  With the surrender of the island he was captured and shipped to Hokkaido, where he was made to mine coal for the duration of the war.

Meanwhile, Eden Hall was commandeered by the Japanese Occupation Forces who used it as an officers' mess.  By all accounts they took good care of the house and furniture, and left intact the wrought-iron staircase which has the initial "M" incorporated into its design.  Happily Manasseh had decided in the '30's to give the staircase a modern look by boarding up the ironwork and the Japanese never thought to look behind the boards.

On his return to Singapore after the war, Vivian Bath regained possession of Eden Hall, which had been requisitioned for use by the British forces.   When Vivian Bath decided to retire to Australia, he sold Eden Hall to the British Government in 1957 for a nominal sum, with the stipulation that a plaque be installed at the bottom of the flagpole, which reads "May the Union Jack fly here forever".

In his memoirs, Lee Kuan Yew denotes a chapter to the famous "Eden Hall Tea Party", on 18 July 1961, a key meeting in the run-up to independence.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has worked hard to maintain the house in its original form.  Although a new roof and bathrooms have been installed, the structure and fabric remain unchanged.  Ezekiel Manasseh would have no difficulty in recognising his Edwardian "minor masterpiece".