Qualla: The Letter E and the End of Empire

The Letter E and the End of Empire: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mx. Granger, CC0. Seen from above, the Secretariat Building in Bandar Seri Begawan resolves into a capital letter E. The shape is not accidental. When Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III laid the foundation stone on 19 November 1952, Brunei was a British protectorate, and the building's architects at Booty and Edwards designed the floor plan as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who would be crowned the following year. The brick-red roofs and white walls rose in the colonial style of the era, symmetrical and orderly, and when the building was completed in August 1953 it was considered the most modern structure in the country. Seventy years later, the E remains legible from the air, a relic of a political relationship that the building itself has long outlived.

Image: Mx. Granger | CC0

The Letter E and the End of Empire: Colonial Concrete, Bruneian Carvings

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Government of Brunei, Public domain. The Secretariat Building's architectural identity lives in the tension between its British bones and its Bruneian skin. The colonnaded front verandah, the three pylon entrances, and the symmetrical massing all speak the language of British colonial administration: clean lines, pr...

Image: Government of Brunei | Public domain

The Letter E and the End of Empire: The Seat of Power Shifts

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the building opened on 1 July 1954, the Jabatan Adat Istiadat Negara -- the department of royal customs and ceremonies -- took up residence in its General Office, an early signal that Bruneian traditions would find a home even within colonial infrastructure. After the 1959 p...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Letter E and the End of Empire: An Old Building, Still Working

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Unlike many colonial-era structures across Southeast Asia, the Secretariat Building was never abandoned, never converted into a museum, never left to decay behind a heritage plaque. It kept working. Government departments have cycled through its offices for seven decades, each le...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

The Letter E and the End of Empire: Reading the E from Above

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arkib Negara Brunei Darussalam, Public domain. The road that passes the Secretariat Building is called Jalan Elizabeth II, another echo of the queen whose initial the building wears. From ground level, the E is invisible -- you see columns, verandahs, Nolli's carvings, the comings and goings of government workers. It takes al...

Image: Arkib Negara Brunei Darussalam | Public domain