Adam Park Estate was the site of intense fighting between British forces and the invading Japanese army in February 1942, in the last days before the British surrendered Singapore.
The Japanese began their invasion of British Malaya at Kota Bharu on 8 December 1941. Over the following weeks, they pushed the defending forces southwards, towards Singapore. The Japanese crossed the Straits of Johore and invaded Singapore on 8 February 1942. By 11 February, they controlled Bukit Timah Village.
On 12 February, the defending forces formed a final perimeter around the city. On that morning, British soldiers of the 1st Battalion, the Cambridgeshire Regiment, took up positions in the Adam Park housing estate. The Battalion's headquarters was at house number 7. The British were attacked by Japanese snipers using mortars, and responded in kind. British troops called the nearby intersection of Adam Road, Sime Road and Lornie Road "Hellfire Corner" after the defenders there came under heavy fire from Japanese aircraft.
Over the following days, the Japanese closed in on the British positions at Adam Park. The opposing soldiers engaged in close combat with machine guns, grenades, bayonets and bare hands. Japanese Zero fighter planes flew low over the battlefield, firing at the defenders. British soldiers set fires to clear undergrowth, flushing the Japanese out of their positions and into the range of British guns. Despite their losses, the Japanese attacked repeatedly.
On the afternoon of 15 February, the British forces at Adam Park received an order to ceasefire at 4 p.m. That evening, Lieutenant-General A.E. Percival surrendered to Lieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki at the Ford Factory, Bukit Timah. The Japanese occupied Singapore until the end of the war in 1945.
After the Japanese Occupation, the house was occupied as a private residence. 7 Adam Park has served as the Adam Park Guild House of the National University of Singapore society since March 1987.