This is none other than the Grand Theater & Jubilee Park – before the Shaw Brothers renovated it. From the clues in the picture, some of you may be able to roughly guess the year this was taken. What was YOUR early memory of this famous landmark? Were you a patron of the Cabaret? Did […]
“A Countess from Hong Kong” – a story about Natascha, a White Russian countess, who stows away on a luxury liner at Hong Kong, determined to seek a new life in America – is showing at the Lido and in competition, “The Blue Max” is showing at the Cathay. Which one did you see?
Know this street? Recognise the buildings? We await your comments! 🙂
This photograph is marked 1966 on the reverse but, When was this hotel built? Who owned it? What’s become of it now? Yes, we have SO many questions about this place……that’s why we’ve turned to YOU – our Readers – to help us out. 🙂
One thing I do not understand about Ipoh is that here we have a beautiful hotel building used as an electrical store while so many entrepreneurs are knocking up ugly buildings all over the place which they happily call one of the three b’s – backpacker, budget or boutique hotels . Why didn’t one of […]
I had a brief ride around Old Town this morning to see what was happening. I couldn’t get any photo or update on the Railway Station Gardens as they are still hidden behind tall blue fencing. However apart from the Cenotaph and the Ipoh Tree there seems to be nothing of the gardens left. Not […]
Just look what happened yesterday! I passed by in the morning and only the top half was painted but by the time I got around to going back with my camera the FB site “All About Ipoh” had beaten me to it and posted this photograph. I am sure the authors won’t mind me using […]
We’ve come across many photographs of Ipoh. With a little ‘detective work’ and some help from our fans, we usually can guess the places/streets. But this one (picture above) has left us stumped :O Do you know WHERE in Ipoh this place is? Is this place still there now? Amd what about the date? We […]
The shop 3rd from left is ‘Chop Cheong Chin’; next to that is ‘Syarikat Perak Travel Agency’, which is also an agency for Singapore Airlines. That’s about all we could make out from this picture. Now, across the street from this row of shop houses…..(see picture below) ….is another similar row. Notice also that at […]
the famous Bridge a view from the Bridge These are from the collection of the late Geoffrey Clark. Believe it or not, Ipoh DID look like this about 64 years ago; the bridge (1st pic) definately looks different now…..even the view from the said bridge (2nd pic) has changed so much.
We received this from Sophie via email. This was taken during Chinese New Year in 1969 – showing the Class of Form 3C of RPS. Sophie has, unfortunately, lost touch with her friends (those in the picture) since she left school. Are you one of those in the picture? Do let us know…..and Sophie if […]
This was taken by the late Geoffrey Clark, of the 4th Regiment Signals Troop (one the the early British army groups to arrive in Malaya after the Japanese surrendered). Clark served here from about 1945-1947, and sadly passed away in 2006. Look at the picture carefully…..WHERE do you think this place is? We’re stumped ourselves, […]
This photo was provided by the Cheong family for use in “Ipoh, My Home Town” but it was not used as there were much more appropriate images to use for their story. The banner reads something like “Professor Shu Tong Zen, Exhibition of his Chinese Paintings including an exhibition of his Malaysian Students’ Work”. Now […]
Yes, at last Ipoh, My Home Town has gone to the printers. As you may know, I have been working on a new book for the past 20 months or so, editing and compiling original stories of people growing up in Ipoh over the last 90 years. It is entitled “Ipoh, My Home Town: Reminiscences […]
Ruth Rollitt was so incensed by the multicoloured Cathay that we featured, she sent us this photograph of how the Theatre looked when it first opened in those days of Movies and Mercedes. She included a newspaper article from 1958, the first part of which is inserted below. The whole article will appear on or […]
We featured this building in http://www.ipohworld.org/?p=1712 where we showed the original mansion that belonged to Dato Seri Lau Pak Kuan OBE JP and what the owners of the Coliseum Club had done to deface this beautiful building. In the comments on that blog mashi74 reported that the stylistic roof had been removed and, as you can see […]
A stone’s throw away from #188 is Hume Street, now known as Jalan Mesjid. Along this short but interesting street, one can find many traditional trades co- existing harmoniously with modern ones. Let’s start with this building at the junction of Hume Street “ 谦街 ” and Jalan Yang Kalsom. This building once housed the […]
Dad has only a primary education. Without a stable job, it is difficult to feed a large family. We have already pawned whatever that can be pawned. We were close to living in poverty. Finally, Grandma let out the front portion of #188 to a couple who turned it into a mahjong parlor. Many whores, […]
Yes ladies and gentlemen the exterior restoration of the Lam Looking building is complete, and it really is looking good. But before you feast your eyes on the wonderful building please allow me to show you what it looked like about 60 plus years ago when still in operation. Well there you are, with the […]
“To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.” After the Japanese left Malaya in 1945, Dad had wanted to resume with his apprenticeship at the village workshop in Batu Gajah […]
The Qing Ming Festival, the Clear Bright Festival, Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day is a traditional Chinese festival which falls on the first day of the fifth solar term. It denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the graves of departed ones. This year […]
Many people do not understand the difference between renovation and restoration, but in simple terms restoration means to return something to its original state (as near as possible) while renovation allows one to change, modernise, adds bits and pieces and generally end up looking nothing like the original. A good example would be Elizabeth Taylor […]
Just a stone’s throw from the very centre of Ipoh City lies this classic old VW Beetle. It is amazing that such junk can lie about in our city, but the picture, taken today, proves it. What is more there is more of this junk around if you really start to look. Do watch this […]
This photograph was taken by an Ipoh resident, Richard, Leong, in the early 1960’s not long after it had been erected by the Perak Turf Club as a gift to the town. At the key junction of Hugh Low Street, Gopeng Road, Tambun Road and Brewster Road it welcomed travellers to Ipoh from all directions. […]
Local artist Khor Seow Hooi is presenting an exhibition of his paintings of Old Ipoh Town in the Syuen Hotel, first floor, from today 24 January 2010 until 31 january from 10am to 7.30pm daily, including Sunday. Above is one example of his detailed work in ink and watercolour on paper. He has captured many of […]
In the entrance to the same building as the wash hand basin below hangs this electric light fitting. As electricity did not properly come to Ipoh until 1930, courtesy of the Perak River Hydro-Electric Power Company Ltd, it can only be around 75 years old – the art deco period – and that ties in very […]
For most items the definition of a true antique is more than 100 years old, although there are special arrangements made for items like paintings. Here we have a real antique, found still fitted in a Chinese building in Ipoh after almost 117 years. Such items were quite rare in Perak in those days, apart […]
What a nice surprise I had yesterday when I dropped in to Panglima Lane to see the latest state of that fast disappearing site of Ipoh’s heritage. There was a wonderful sight, a Malay couple dressed in their stunning white silk wedding attire being photographed. The scene was without doubt worthy of the above secondary title “Beauty’Midst the Bricks”. Now I did […]
It was time to have another look at the restoration/renovation of Lam Looking Bazaar, so I popped down there this afternoon. What a great transformation met my eyes for as the above picture shows, despite the diversion notices and vehicles, the exterior has taken on a great new look – almost back to brand new. […]
Yes there really is another new heritage trail map for Ipoh, this one taking in both Old and New Town streets and 60 heritage buildings as well as giving a brief history of the city from 1873 to 1941. There is also a section on Ipoh’s famous foods, some notes on the Malay Enclave and “How to […]
Here we have a ‘friendly’ bus – ferrying the children around and also joining them on school trips. This picture was taken from the Main Convent Centenary Magazine. Judging by the number plate (AA 5084) and from the wordings in the magazine, we think this picture was probably taken around the year 1957. Anyone out […]
This is Ipoh’s Cathay Theatre which still stands to day, but no longer as a cinema having been overtaken by Metroplexes and the like. It was once a beautiful single-screen theatre, built in Cockman Street in late 1956 and opened on August 31, 1957 with the movie, ‘The King and I’, telling the fictitious romantic story of Anna […]
Well he would be in danger if he was to try and take the same photograph today as he was standing in the centre of the Birch Bridge in Brewster Road, but of course in 1952 life was different in Ipoh, Brewster Road took two-way traffic and as you can see the road is almost empty. Compare that […]
This picture shows one of the worst floods that ever happened in Ipoh. It was in 1926 and the picture was taken at the corner of Belfield Street and Station Road. The precautions against such a disaster was taken earlier than this date. Around 1914-1921, the Ipoh Flood Mitigation Scheme had been carried out to protect the town from the then […]
This old picture came from the same source as the one below. When did you last see so many trishaws in a Perak Street? But what street is it? There are no prizes for the correct answer, just the honour of demonstrating your knowledge of your old home town.
This photo came to us via a soldier (who took it) and a policeman (who saved it), both of whom served here during the Malayan Emergency. The picture really needs no explanation, simply two popular modes of transport in the 1950’s. Does any one have any tales to tell us about their ride in either of […]
This house in Hume Street, New Town, Ipoh is often admired by visitors and locals alike. It has appeared several times on other blogs and it would be a serious omission if we did not include it on ipohWorld’s World as it is a great example of how nice Ipoh could look if other owners cared […]
At one time Ipoh sported two Birch Memorials, the clock tower in memory of J W W Birch and this beautiful marble fountain in Belfield Street to honour his son E W Birch. These memorials always seem to cause confusion as today only the clock tower remains and more than one tourism site has misled […]
The picture shows Ipoh New Town extending from the Kinta River in 1908. It was built on the padi fields of Datoh Panglima Kinta and as the new buildings were erected from the river towards Gopeng Road, block by block, replacing a number of extremely smelly pigsties. The builder was Yau Tet Shin, miner, property […]
The picture shows the Panglima Street, Ipoh around 1904. It was named after Datoh Panglima Kinta who originally owned the land that Ipoh is built on. In Perak, the elephants could be seen on the streets as they were used as a main carrier for both people and goods, particularly in the tin mines. Perak was […]
While many will argue that this is not heritage that depends a lot on one’s point of view. Here we have the logo brightening up a really dull steel shutter in a heritage building and demonstrating a family’s pride in what they do (books for education), their family name and the country to which they […]
This little group of buildings in Belfield Street, Old Town, Ipoh is very reminiscent of the days when budding entrepreneurs bought a single plot of land and had their own ideas created into a shop-house. Individuality was the hallmark in those days not like the vast housing developments today with their rows and rows of […]
Hugh Low Street taken from rise, near the Registar of Motor Vehicles office in 1887. The first bus service was started from this street and Laxamana Road to Gopeng in 1910. The pioneer was Yeop Abdul Rani Idris who used a single bus to run his business. However, in 1912, the business collapsed due to economic […]
Most tourists that traverse Old Town make a point of photographing the Birch Memorial Clock Tower, just as this photographer has done in the past. But searching for a different view this time he came across this little side-lane and this is what he got to take home to remind him of Ipoh. What a pity that Ipoh, once […]
Sunday is a good day to follow the published heritage walk around Old Town, Ipoh as there is not too much traffic and very few cars parked to obstruct the view of the heritage buildings. But a word of warning, do watch where you step because, as the photographs show, quite apart from having to […]
If you walk past the front of Lam Looking building, nothing much seems to be happening, but pause a moment and you will hear the mighty hammering of hacking tools and when they take a break – voices. Could it be that something is cooking inside the building? Now before you move on, look up and right at the top. Something […]
Ipoh has many of these shop-sign pillars lining the 5-foot way, more we believe than any of the other Malaysian cities, but it is very unusual to see them in any other langusge but Chinese. However this pair, relics of Ipoh’s Colonial past remain with us to remind us that at one time the two languages […]
It is very sad to see that the recent renovation of this building has included enclosing the 5 foot walkway that was designed to provide shelter for passing pedestrians from the scorching sun and the pouring rain. Has the owner recently bought the pavement from the council or simply stolen it and if it is the […]
One of our supporters was having a walk around Old Town with his camera last Sunday. He stopped by the Birch Clock Tower to admire the beautiful paintwork on the OCBC building, rejoicing in the fact that this grand old building, built by the Straits Trading Company in 1906/1907 is still with us. But then […]
This postcard dates from around 1935 and shows the Hugh Low Bridge as most people still call it today. At one time when Hugh Low, as a British Colonial, was out of fashion it was known as the Kinta Bridge, but the name never really caught on. Anyway, those who cross the bridge regularly will know […]
This photograph came with the caption “An important street in Ipoh in 1950”. However we cannot name it nor decide why it is said to be important. Can you? Don’t be shy just drop us a line by clicking om “Leave a comment” under these words. We guarantee not to use your email for any […]
This divided back, unused, card from Airfoto is centred on the Perak State Mosque with the Railway Station clearly visible between it and the limestone hills which form the backdrop against a brilliant blue sky. The amazing thing about this picture is just what a beautiful and green city Ipoh was in the 1960’s. In every […]
How Others See Us. Below is a true copy of Lonely Planet’s latest report on Ipoh. Check it out if you don’t believe me. We simply added the red highlighting. For the visitor, Ipoh is mainly a transit town, a place where you change buses if you’re heading for Pulau Pangkor or the Cameron Highlands. However, […]
Although so far nobody has commented on our earlier blog about the disgraceful state of Panglima Lane today, I thought that you might like to see what it should look like. This picture although of poor quality shows just how well looked after, clean and tidy the Lane used to be. Obviously the owners had […]
The local government system was introduced into Malaya before the end of the 19th century, after the system showed a tremendous development in United Kingdom. In United Kingdom, the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 become the initial step towards the local government establistment. This law required the local community to look into the problems of […]
Just a stone’s throw from the river beautification project and in one of the most interesting parts of Old Town is Market Street and this eyesore. What can one say? Do we have no pride in ourselves and our city?
In December last year there was a revelation by the Datuk Bandar, Ipoh, that the legendary tunnel under the Ipoh Town Hall, which is said to join the Railway Station to the High Court and the Police Station (the latter being most unlikely) was to be investigated. Indeed, not only investigated, but opened to the public as […]
We are grateful to Ramesh who has lent us this photograph so that we may share it with you. The photograph shows Chamberlain Road, Ipoh with Jalan Bendahara at the bottom left, joining Chamberlain at the roundabout. Apart from the Sri Maju Bus Company replacing the Palm Trees, bottom left, with their vehicles in 1978 not […]
This advertisement shows the first Times of Malaya Building in Ipoh, where it was adjacent to the Birch Memorial Clock Tower. The Times of Malaya: Planters and Miners Gazette was started by J I Philips in 1903, with a mission to further the mining, planting, and mercantile interest of the Federated Malay States (FMS) and […]
The photographs, taken by a Japanese tourist, show Ipoh’s famous Beef Noodle Stall in operation in Theatre Street in 1968 where it served the people of Ipoh for more than 50 years, until they were forced by legislation to move to a central hawkers area, known locally as Rainbow City. They have been at this […]
This photograph taken by Kamy Studio, Ipoh has Chinese characters on the back which read: “To Ms Chai Kwai Ying, The Red Crane Band, 22-12-70.” If any one can tell us about this band we will be delighted to hear from you.
On 14 June 2009 both the China Press and Oriental Daily kindly featured the launch of ipohWorld’s new database archive and blog. The photographs show guests viewing the photographic exhibition, “Snapshots of the Emergency” that accompanied the launch. Scans of the articles are shown above and for the convenience of the all, we enclose our Press […]
As an introduction to the launch of ipohWorld’s new website, database archive and blog at the Royal Ipoh Club on 13 June 2009, the Star Newspaper kindly featured us on the same morning. The photographs in the above article show the ipohWorld project manager demonstrating the type of information available in the archive ( on […]
Most people know about FMS, the oldest bar in Malaysia which is currently under renovation. Indeed many people fear that it will never open again. However it certainly looks hopeful. Taking the photographs from the top it appears that nothing is happening, but go round the back and you will see an amazing transformation (centre […]
Known by Perakians young and old as The Old Post Office, and despite being connected to the Town Hall the building has been empty since the early 1990s and been derelict for years. As can be seen from the top picture the Town Hall has been repainted and shows signs of being cared for but it has been a […]
From time to time (but with monotonous regularity) Ipoh suffers a mysterious fire in one or other of the old buildings in Old or New Town. This one in Brewster Road happened on the eve of Chinese New Year 2009. The building had been out of use for years. How did the fire start we […]
