Khoo Kongsi

The Khoo Kongsi (邱公司) is a large Chinese clanhouse with elaborate and highly ornamented architecture, a mark of the dominant presence of the Chinese in Penang. The famous Khoo Kongsi is the grandest clan temple in the country. It is also one of the city's major historic attraction. The clan temple has retained its authentic historic setting, which includes an association building, a traditional theatre and the late 19th century rowhouses for clan members, all clustered around a granite-paved square. It is located in Cannon Square in the heart of the oldest part of the city of George Town, in the midst of narrow, winding lanes and quaint-looking pre-War houses exuding a palpable old world charm.

The Khoo Kongsi is a clan association of the Leong San Tong (Dragon Mountain Hall) clan, whose forefathers came from Sin Kang clan village in Hokkien province. The Khoos were among the wealthy Straits Chinese traders of 17th century Malacca and early Penang. In the 19th century, the clan complex resembled a miniature clan village, with its own self-government as well as educational, financial, welfare and social organisations. The clan temple was built in 1906 when the Khoo clan was at the height of wealth and eminence in Penang society.

The forefathers of the Khoo family who emigrated from South China built it as a clanhouse for members of the Khoo family in 1851. It was burnt down in 1894, allegedly struck by lightning, and the Chinese believed that it was due to its resemblance to the Emperor's palace, which provoked the gods. A scaled-down version was later built in 1902 and completed in 1906. Even so, the complex boasts a magnificent hall embellished with intricate carvings and richly ornamented beams of the finest wood bearing the mark of master craftsmen from China. The clan temple is dedicated to the clan's patron deities and also houses a collection of ancestral tablets. Chinese operas are still staged at the theatre during the seventh lunar month. They are a wonderful cultural experience worth witnessing.

Like many such clan associations in South East Asia, Khoo Kongsi is no longer the center of important social activities and functions that it once held. Different strategies and ideas are being implemented to redefine the place of clan associations in the 21st century.

Penang Town Hall

The Town Hall stands west of the Padang or Esplanade. Frederick Weld, the Governor of the Straits Settlements, record his impressions of it in 1880: “I landed in Penang for a ball and supper, which took place at the Town Hall which I had formally opened a few days before, and which is not only a fine building in itself, but which was, on this occasion, decorated with extreme taste”. The Town Hall was occupied by the municipal offices until the latter moved to City Hall in 1903.

Penang City Hall

The building is the more ornate of the two facing the Padang. Its longer frontage is centred by a single-storey porte cochere flanked by twoarticulated side bays and more elaborate pediments- not strictly in the neoclassical style. On both floors, freestanding, off-the-façade column employ Ionic Orders. The building is richly ornate and baroque.

Wisma Kastam (Customs Building)

The former Malayan Railway Building on the corner of Gat Lebuh China is a landmark with its prominent domed clock tower. Its corner site allows for three finely articulated elevations. The long site has two bays, with half-round pediments at the roofline breaking the monotony. Gaint Ionic columns frame the windows of the two upper floors. The ground floor arcade is treated with mock rustication grooves.

Balai Bomba (Central Fire Station)

The freestanding, three-storey building at the junction of Gat Lebuh Chulia and Lebuh Pantai has functionally large doors that open onto Lebuh Pantai, A low, domed tower for drying out long fire hoses stands at the corner.

State Assembly Buildings (Dewan Undangan Negeri)

The building are typical of early 19th century architecture and stand dignified like a row of three Grek temples along Lebuh Light, south of Fort Cornwallis. Their porticoes are linked by colonnaded blocks, all in Tuscan Order, giving the group an appropriately stately character.

Penang Surpreme Court

The grant colonial-style building, erected in 1905, stands at the junction of Lebuh Light and Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling. It is symmetrically planned in the form of a cros. The high, central spacious hall at the crossing is marked by four corner cupolas. Colounaded verandahs, now filled in with glass and timber louvers, surround the entire building.

State Museum & Art Gallery, Penang

The museum, located on Lebuh Farguhar, has only the remaining western half of an otherwise symmetrically planned building of the former Penang Free School. Its east wing was a casualty of World War II bombs. Its façade is similar to that of the City Hall: late neoclassical style; an arched porte cochere that carries pronounced keystones; and even a look-alike roof turret.