Big Splash gave Singapore its first water park — 29 years later the slides stopped

Big Splash opened at East Coast Park on 23 July 1977, built for S$6 million by Singapore Aquatic Sports, a company owned by Goldhill Properties. Singapore's first seawater aquatic complex spread over 2.8 hectares: five pools filled with seawater over sand bottoms, a wave pool, a 200-metre flow pool whose largest basin held 1,380 people, and five slides — topped by an 85-metre drop reported at opening to be the longest and highest in the world.

For years it was the place Singaporean families learned to swim and queue, but the park aged while newer water parks arrived — Fantasy Island on Sentosa, then Wild Wild Wet in Pasir Ris. A four-month facelift in 2002 refreshed the paint but not the product, and in 2006 Big Splash closed its water park for major redevelopment.

The replacement fared no better. The redeveloped Playground @ Big Splash ran until 21 October 2016, when its lease expired, and the structures were demolished in 2017 with only the park's tower preserved. Coastal PlayGrove, a 4.5-hectare play area that nods to the old water park, opened on the site on 28 March 2021.