The colonial landmark Raffles Hotel Singapore said Tuesday it will close briefly from the end of next year for renovations to modernize the property. The work will begin in January and will be carried out in phases, starting with the hotel's Long Bar, which created the signature drink Singapore Sling.

The hotel said in a statement that it will close from late 2017 until the second quarter of 2018 for the final phase of its renovations.
The 129-year-old hotel, owned by Katara Hospitality, a Qatar-based global hotelier, has accommodated such notables as Rudyard Kipling and Michael Jackson.
When it opened in 1887, it had only 10 rooms. The hotel's history says the last tiger to be shot in Singapore was chased into the hotel and caught hiding under a billiard table.
The hotel's founders named it after the British founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, who died in 1826, decades before it opened.