People
Hotel 1926 and others The story of a remarkable resurrection
|
People
Hotel 1926 and others The story of a remarkable resurrection |
Lucky Numbers
Six, Eight, Nine. These are the lucky numbers. They fetch high
prices at the regular telephone and car numbers sales done at the Telecoms
and at the JPJ. The number 8888 would cost a fortune to acquire, some
say as much as RM20,000. Contractors and builders too conform with superstitious
dictates. Where space permitted they built terrace houses in groups of
six, or eight, or nine. The rich, when squeezed out of the early overcrowded
Malay Street and Prangin Lane houses, occupied the Nine Houses along Penang
Street, among them the pioneer Volunteer and SCBA chief, Lim Eu Toh. Specimens
were also to be found along Cantonment Road, Nagore Road and Krian Road
and .... Hotel 1926 The British colonial administration was not spared this circle of good blessings. Their clerical quarters along the Burmah Road, Chow Thye Road, Service Road and Lorong Selamat areas were built in groups of sixes and eights. Penang's modern obsession with the so called "Manhatten Skyline" however would have none of this fancy voodooism. The lucky number 6 would not have saved the "Hotel 1926" and its neighbours; it had been planned that they were to be demolished to make way for high rise buildings. Luckily one woman intervened. She argued that instead of spending millions building high rise buildings which took years to recoup those former quarters could be made profitable by being simply restored and let out, creating at the same time a heritage site, pleasing to the eye. |
| Saviour
from Kelantan Chow Thye Road 
That saviour of the threatened 20s buildings was Tengku Idaura (M.U. and Sorbonne). This highly persuasive lady, with the culture and the heritage of Kelantan in her veins, as fluent in French as she is in English, talked and talked and ultimately won over those in authority to let her have a go. The result is the much talked of Hotel 1926 (six former houses along Burmah Road and another 12 round the corner along Immigration Road), awarded the Most Excellent Project by Badan Warisan Malaysia in 2001, and charging only RM80 a night. Another six further down Burmah Road have now been converted into attractive shops. Thanks to Tengku Idaura Penang is now able to show off the refurbished collection of former government quarters along Chow Thye Road and Service Road housing such activities as booksellers, music teachers, restaurants, coffee houses and antique dealers. And the rents charged are not crippling: RM1,500 for the Chow Thye Road houses and RM900 for the shorter Service Road quarters. What is unique is the concept of letting out the bare building at low rents with the condition that the tenant must not change the texture of the building, and he should if possible restore it even to its details. Doors and windows if still existing should if possible be left intact. |
Burmah Road houses restored 
Is Tengku Idaura pleased with the result? Penang people from
overseas come and say, how glad I am to see Chow Thye Road again! So
much of Penang has disappeared. Visitors from abroad are pleased to
find that we do not destroy our past. What about the young? Tengku says
this is the greatest surprise to her. The young do care. She says
that many drop in and say how glad they are to see that Penang's past
is being preserved.And those already demolished along Lorong Selamat and Yahudi Road? To Tengku Idaura it was a heartbreak, a missed opportunity for creativity.# |
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| The Penang Heritage Trust
has won the UNESCO Special Achievement
Award in Cultural Heritage Conservation.
The PHT from time to time organises heritage site visits. Such visits have included the Penang Botanic Gardens, Fort Conwallis, The Leong Yin Khean house at Northam Road, the King Street temples
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| ____________________ The Penang File Issue 22 |