Global InformationList of roads in Ipoh information
This is a list of main roads and streets in Ipoh — the capital of the Perak state of Malaysia. Like many city streets in Malaysia and Singapore, these were named after British colonial officers or adjacent landmarks in English. Following the independence of Malaya in 1957 and the prescription of Malay as the country's national language, the city's streets were renamed after local politicians and royalty, with the Malay word jalan being used to indicate a main road.
The town is located on the Kinta River which was the main means of communication to the area until 1895 when the Kinta Valley Railway opened. It grew up at the point on the river at which it ceased to be navigable and the landing stage was by an old upas tree from which the town took its name. During the 1890s the town expanded rapidly from a market village to a booming mining town as large number of Chinese coolies came to the area to work the tin mines of the Kinta valley. The only two roads initially in the area were the cart tracks linking the mines to the landing stages. A wooden bridge was built across the Kinta river on the road to Gopeng which became Hugh Low Street.[1]
Plots of land had been sold to the Chinese by the local land-owning aristocrat, the Dato Panglima Kinta, Mohamed Jusuf, who had laid them out with broad, straight streets but the rapid development had been disorderly so that the main road to Gopeng varied in width from 20 to 70 feet. There was then a great fire on 1 June 1892, which destroyed much of the town's wooden buildings which had attap palm thatch roofs. The reconstruction of the town was organised by the British Collector of Land Revenue, W.J.P. Hume, who straightened the road network, redrew the land boundaries and issued new title deeds. He had no formal authority to do so but his influence and good sense made a success of the scheme. The streets were now 50–60 feet wide, brick drains were laid and shade trees planted.[2]
In the early part of 1895, I came to Malaya. I embarked at Penang, sailed in a coastal steamship for Teluk Anson—and entrained for Ipoh. I was taken to my uncle's house in Hale Street. A few weeks after I was admitted into the Anglo-Chinese school, which was then behind the present site of the Labour and Land Office (1950). The undermentioned roads and streets were in existence when I first came to Ipoh:-
Station Road: It turned off to the road in front of the Kinta Town Board and joined Hale Street. The table-land, on which the Clock Tower now stands, sloped down to Hale Street. Consequently Station Road did not continue as far as Belfield Street, as you see now.
The road in front of the Kinta Town Board continued its course straight across the Ipoh Padang and Clayton Road to the sloping road on the west side of the St. Michael's Institution (which did not exist then), and continued to Kuala Kangsar Road. There were a few attap-roofed plank houses along the sides of the road across the padang (which was not a padang then). The Ipoh Club was in a plank building at the corner of Club Road and Hugh Low Street.
Belfield Street: This street terminated at Hale Street in the North and at Patrick Street in the South. From here it turned off to Lahat Road.
Leech Street: This ended at Hale Street and Hill Street.
Treacher Street: Terminated at Panglima Street in the north. On the south it stretched as far as the Kinta River. Across the river there was a narrow wooden bridge to enable the kampong people to pass by.
Hale Street extended as far as the river bank. There was no bund, but a platform was constructed for people to bathe — chiefly the Chinese.
Panglima Street ended at Treacher Street because the bend in the river was there.
Market Street had its end at Belfield Street in the west and at the Market on the river bank on the east. This was the only market for Ipoh at the time.
Hugh Low Street extended as far as the Ipoh Hospital in front of the railway station in the west and Tambun and Gopeng Roads in the east. There was a wooden bridge across the river. This street did not go as it does today, but turned onto the road by the side of the Malay mosque and joined Gopeng Road at the spot where Universal Motors now stands. Opposite to this was the iron foundry, known as Riley Hargreaves. On this road, by the side of Anderson Road, was the old Mariammem temple. There was no New Town then. There were kampongs and jungle in that area. Dato Laxamana's house with fort was in the centre of the present Ipoh Market Square adjoining Laxamana Road, which was a bridle path.
Club Road terminated in the north at Station Road and in the south at Lahat Road. By the side of Club Road, where the bus station now lies, was the railway goods shed.
Lahat Road was as it is today. On Lahat Road between Patrick Street and the old Cold Storage Road was the Ipoh Foundry. The Majestic Hotel — some years ago known as the Grand Hotel — was the residence of Dato Wahab (the Dato Muda) and later of Orang Kaya Sri Adika Raja, Mohamed Salleh Isa. The high ground where the Anglo-Chinese School main building stands was a Malay kampong. The other buildings you see on Lahat Road were not in existence then. Falim was a vegetable garden and later a rubber estate.
Connolly Road: There was no such road then, but Hill Street extended as far as Connolly Road behind the houses on Jelf Road. A bridle path stretched up to the Biroh School, at which place was the incinerator (built 1897). The playground by the side was the old hospital burial ground.
In general, Brewster Road, Jalan Datoh, Clayton Road, Silibin Road and Maxwell Road were not in existence. Labrooy Town was a swampy place. The Istana and Residency was at Istana Road. The eastern side of the Ipoh padang was a swamp where buffaloes wallowed. Kenion Street was the bed of the Kinta River, which flowed close to Treacher Street and in front of the Chinese Temple in the People's Park. In the space between Kenion Street and the houses on the right of Market Street stood the Malay mosque. The present transport office was the former Post and Telegraph Office. The present Detective Office was the former police station. The gambling houses were at the corners of Market and Leech Streets. Panglima and Hill Streets were famous for the Chinese and Indian beauties respectively.
R. Ayaru, Ipoh: The Town That Tin Built[3]
- ^ Tate & Chai 1962, pp. 13–17.
- ^ Tate & Chai 1962, pp. 13, 18.
- ^ Tate & Chai 1962, p. 19.