We're both surrounded by and interested in Kuching's history, but up to now I've been a bit random about covering it.

Recently we've been making a bit more of an effort to photograph the city's old buildings, many of which have really fascinating stories.

Kuching's "open-air market" -- which has had a roof since 1971, and is really more a food court and transport hub than a wet market, but these old labels will stick... -- is officially known, Priscilla Tawie tells us, as the Tower Market. This name derives from the watchtower, which was part of the former fire station.

A new station, at the end of Jalan Padungan, was completed in the late 1950s, and its predecessor largely demolished, but the decision was made to preserve the tower.

Which is good, because it's very shapely, I think.



Tawie explains how blazes were a real problem in old Kuching. The Great Fire of 1884 gutted almost 200 wooden shophouses (after which the order went out to BUILD IN BRICK). Fire extinguishing was initially part of police duties, and it wasn't until 1917 that Kuching acquired its first specialist fire engine (coal-powered). In 1926, trained fire officers moved to the site that is now the Tower Market, and the tower itself was erected in 1927. Ironically, perhaps, the fire station complex stood on reclaimed land. The area used to be a tidal creek connected to the Sarawak River, and local residents would draw water from the stream there.

Across the road from the market and its tower is Electra House. Designed by Singaporean architects, and opened in 1965, it was Kuching's first modern shopping mall.



According to Alan Lau: "It's difficult to appreciate the impact of the new Electra House, for those of us who were practically raised in air-conditioned modern shopping malls... But for Kuchingites then, it was a revelation that changed the cityscape for ever... Suddenly, here in the heart of the city, was a bright, modern metropolis, its lower storeys open to the city streets, like a sort of giant concrete verandah or a theatre stage... It was practically handmade for the young, and therefore an instant success. There you met friends, scoped out rival schools, played truant, and enacted all kinds of purposeful loitering... During its heyday, Electra housed the most prestigious and most utterly cool shops Kuching had to offer."

But things come, and things go. By the 1980s, Electra House was irrevocably in decline, and an "unsympathetic renovation" in the 1990s did not help revive its fortunes.

Lau wonders what should happen to places like this: "Should buildings deemed worthy of conservation be restricted only to those with History (with a capital H) or should much-loved, pioneering structures like Electra House be included?" With resources scarce, such questions become even harder to answer.

I'm always a bit reluctant to photograph police stations, but the one at Merdeka Square is a historical icon. Blue and white, as are all police stations in Malaysia, the building opened in 1931.


The Rumah Masra stands near the currently devastated Reservoir Park.


It's a lovely building, and has quite a history.

This blogger grew up there, and remembers lush gardens, views of the golf course, home movie nights with her grandfather's old film projector -- and ghosts...

After the family left, in the early 1980s, the state government handed the building over to a craft organization called Atelier, but some of it at least became the Ammah Curry House, a banana leaf restaurant. At one point, it also saw action as a music venue.

In these covid-confused days, the place appears to be closed, but maybe we're just not sufficiently in the know.

Reservoir Park, aka Taman Budaya, actually occupies both sides of Jalan Taman Budaya. There's an interesting and photogenic ruin over there, about which I can find no information whatsoever.






More on all this soon.

In the meantime, I'll just list here some of the heritage buildings that have featured in previous posts (not including religious establishments, which I'll itemize separately).

1. Fort Margherita
2. The Textile Museum and Chinese History Museum
3. The air raid shelters in Reservoir Park, and the Islamic Museum
4. St Thomas's graveyard, the aqueduct in Reservoir Park, the Ranee Museum, and the MBKS Pictorial Gallery
5. Batu Lintang camp memorial
6. The park by the old museum