Get to know historic George Town on a walking tour

Take the Esplanade Sea Wall Heritage Trail. — Photos: SHIREEN ZAINUDIN

George Town, Penang needs little introduction to most visitors. An obvious entry point into the Malay peninsula, it is in fact a city and best explored on foot.

Repeat visitors find comfort in their familiarity with a network of heritage interests – walking tours of Peranakan food, ghostly abodes, art murals or book locations. Tradition and legend charmingly criss crossing the city’s rapid urbanisation.

We love George Town for the stories held in these spaces and sometimes for the spaces that are of themselves, “the story”.

On my own private walking tour recently, I rediscovered a neural network of small spaces thinking big and, more importantly, thinking ahead. Breathing museums that show us how it’s done, linking our cultural assets with our natural ones, pulling us into the past even as they propel us into the future. Old lessons brought to light with the peeling off of layers.

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is also known as the Blue Mansion.

The beginning

For many casual observers, George Town’s inchoate beginnings as a heritage city may well have started with the spectacular rehabilitation of the multi-courtyard Chinese-style Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion on Lebuh Leith in 1995.

For Loh-Lim Lin Lee, a leading conservationist at the award-winning architectural practice Arkitek LLA, and whose husband (architect Laurence Loh) owns Cheong Fatt Tze or The Blue Mansion, the Grade 1 restoration “had to be done properly”. So, research, replication and reuse were the guiding principles.

They reached back in time to when the building was first constructed and strived to retain the formerly grand residence’s original fabric and structure. From the iconic blue of the walls to the application of traditional methods, with minimal modern interventions. It was important that cladding could once again “breathe”. So more recent methods of waterproofing were ditched and rainwater collection prioritised.

Primarily using Penang artisans and local materials, the benchmark restoration won the prestigious Unesco Most Excellent Project in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award in 2000. Then in 2008, the Unesco World Heritage Site listing landed and the rest of the country looked to George Town with pride in our collective heritage.

As one of the top boutique hotels in the country, The Blue Mansion shows us how social responsibility is necessary and workable. That great business plans need to be coupled with a sustainable drive to build back better – an upcycling of lessons from the past.

Today the public is invited to infuse The Blue Mansion with their own personal experiences. It is a favoured event venue with a fine-dining restaurant named Indigo. On more casual mornings, slipping through that cool blue for a leisurely sipping on a hot white at Café Mangga works nicely too.

North by East

Straight down the “challengingly-monikered” Lebuh Farquhar turning onto Light Street, is one of the prettiest runs in the city on an early morning. It leads you to the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock (built in commemoration of the British royal’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897).

At first glance these side streets appear to be a cluster of crumbling walls. But slow down, look and listen; you’ll learn how once upon a repeated time this was a crossroads of adventure and opportunity.

Here lies the eastern seafront with the Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal and passenger ferry docks. It is the entry point by sea for most visitors. The row of godowns is presently derelict though there are intriguing whispers of future community sensitive redevelopment. In the past, the east seafront was the port for tradesmen and businesses to dock, and store their goods and trades. The industry very much shaped this side of George Town.

The big draw across the road of course is Fort Cornwallis, with its skeletal steel lighthouse and towering ship’s mast. Entry fees are RM10 for Malaysians, RM20 for foreigners and you’re in the largest intact fort in Malaysia.

Railroad tracks at Fort Cornwallis.

Fort Cornwallis

Named after Charles Cornwallis, the governor-general of Bengal in the late 18th century, Fort Cornwallis never engaged in combat during its operational history. Part of the empire nevertheless, and its legacy remains.

The past, they say, is a foreign country, and there are layers of foreign here. The British rise and fall and the Japanese interlude. All these past ministrations are evident within the fabric of this fortification. The literal unearthing of history has been a project involving historians, archaeologists, conservationists, architects, engineers and other relevant experts: Excavators of antiquity who have catalogued almost 30,000 artefacts from periods of British colonisation and Japanese occupation.

Walk into the star-shaped fort today and visitors make a beeline for the obvious photo opportunities with cut out guards who once ran the fort. The original arms magazine and gunpowder room are still intact in opposite corners of the star. There is a bronze statue of Captain Francis Light with his sword missing, which is believed to have been melted down by the Japanese.

The amphitheatre in the middle is courtesy of a much more recent administration.

Two 200-year-old cannons were discovered during the excavation of the fort’s moat and outer defensive structures in 2018. Both bear the insignia “GR” – Georgius Rex – suggesting they were from the reign of King George III (1760-1820). It is believed that none of the cannons here ever fired a shot. The most famous of the cannons on parade is of course the Sri Rambai Cannon, keeping watch in unbowed observation over the Straits of Malacca.

This fortification and sea-facing firepower however did little to thwart the Japanese during World War II. They came on bicycles, conquered the land and built the railway tracks that are still visible in parts of the fort today. The railway tracks back then looped across The Padang and back to the same godowns now earmarked for repurposing.

The Sri Rambai cannon that faces the Straits of Malacca.

Science, not fiction

But perhaps the most inspiring lesson we can take away from the fort is contained in 10 storerooms, nondescript holes-in-the-wall at first glance, lined up along the south of the fort. A conservation management plan in 2016 led to the discovery that the floor beds had shifted over time, as had the use of these rooms.

Bringing the floor beds back to their original levels, conservation architects Think City, working alongside master masons from Italy via the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, discovered that the fundamental relationship between nature and skill had been separated and needed to be revived. That meaningful reconstruction had to include natural materials for plastering and flooring, and the best practice conservation work involved traditional technique, with innovative materials.

Modern cement binders cannot breathe and are therefore an enemy to the conservation of heritage buildings. Experimentation with aggregates and components led to the creation of a sustainable permeable plaster using crushed brick with lime. The pandemic pause led to the serendipitous discovery that these innovative fabrications in plastering and flooring retained their mould-free finish over an extended period of time. A pilot project creating pre-mixes for future construction, advising on application and implementation was thus born.

The museology of the 10 proposed themed galleries will chronologically tell the story of Fort Cornwallis and its role in the context of Penang’s history and of the laudable work done here, in winsome tribute to conservation, as well as – excitingly – leaving doors open to what future adventure might be. It is slated for a July 2025 opening.

A 1910 photo of the West gate at Fort Cornwallis. — Handout

South by West

Along the outer south and west walls of the fort, on the corner of childhood theatrics and castle adventures, is where the only moat restoration project in Malaysia is currently taking place. Upon completion in 2025, the unhindered view of the moated ramparts of Fort Cornwallis across The Padang from the City Hall and Town Hall might well be the coolest from any office anywhere.

Imaginary battles aside, the reinstatement of the old moat reveals the defensive structures of an inner, outer and glacis wall. Eventually running 9m- to 12m-wide along these two sides of Fort Cornwallis, the Southern and Western Moats feature bioswales and an introduction of selected water plants for filtration, safety and sustainability. The moats are also poised to be open to public, establishing accessible public spaces for Penangites and visitors to enjoy.

Stroll along the widened and pretty Lebuh Light sidewalk on this south wall before turning west and you will arrive at Astaka Kota Selera food court, home to the famed multi-generational vendors of mee sotong and pasembor.

The North seafront

This brings us to the North seafront and the Esplanade Sea Wall Promenade completed in 2022. Running 460m from Dewan Sri Pinang to Fort Cornwallis, the walkway is thrumming with life this morning. From yoga practitioners, arms aloft in balance and supplication quietly breathing in the sea air, to runners in neon, fitness gadgets strapped to their wrists, it is an exhilarating and inspiring gift to the public.

The original sea wall has been strengthened, with this widened promenade gracefully sweeping alongside it for public use. A second wall structure was built to incorporate a water play feature, naturally filled and facilitated by the overflow of tidal waves for the public to cool down, wade and splash in.

There are exciting discussions about a walkable green connector from here to Gurney Bay. A Linear Garden has been constructed, bordering the sea wall adjacent to The Cenotaph – a lovely pocket park for visitors paying their respects to fallen war heroes. The Koh Seang Tat Fountain in the Town Hall garden has been restored to its original vibrancy and provides a soothing focal point for resting strollers.

Like all charming village greens and parade grounds of yore, The Padang and its surrounds serve as the beating heart and green lung of George Town. So much a part of our cultural heritage, the synergy with our natural heritage is a thing of beauty and calm, just across from the commercial buzz of the town centre.

An old photo of George Town, taken from the fort. — Handout

Time for a visit

Back in town, two gorgeously airy restored pre-war shophouses on Rope Walk (Jalan Pintal Tali) are available to stay as part of The Blue Mansion stable. A third shophouse is in the thick of an experimental restoration with the help of experts, techniques and lessons learned from the fort storeroom rebuilding.

Dr William Khor, Loh-Lim’s son-in- law and as such, part of the next generation, tells me that the biggest challenge was always convincing workmen to use traditional methods; to not use cement.

“We need to allow a building to breathe. You enter an old house and it’s cool because it breathes. Not sealed. It’s a learning process for us too. The recipe and execution often need tweaking.”

Dr Khor has plans to use this property as a regional teaching ground, to hold workshops and conferences on the use of lime-based plaster.

“It’s all for the future generations. They need to see the value. We need to rectify earlier mistakes.”

Faced with the pace of modern development, perhaps innovation should always be part of the trajectory of cultural modernisation. The evolution of a city is made up of small communities of interests working bottom up. It seems quintessentially Penang, this business of living reminders of who came before and leaving their own trails.

And of course, families are travelling in droves again. It’s time for the kids to see beyond a pile of bleached buildings, hear it breathe and talk the walk.

This article is part of the Northern Region Archaeotourism Network & Local Economic Development programme, a Think City initiative, under the auspices of the Finance Ministry of Malaysia.