A few weeks ago, I began an attempt to write about Kuching's built heritage in a somewhat more coherent fashion than the scattershot approach that was all I'd managed up to now.

Well, our explorations have continued over recent weeks. Things we previously walked past obliviously have become more interesting; and things we didn't even know about have emerged.

The Old Hokkien Free School is one of the former. The initiative to found this primarily Chinese-language school, which opened its doors in 1911, was probably fed by the ideas of the revolutionaries in China in the years leading up to the 1912 proclamation of the republic. At that point, Sarawak's Chinese population still looked on China as their ancestral home, and the younger generation aspired to return there for higher education. The mission schools that previously provided the backbone of education in Kuching had prioritized English, and it was felt they had neglected the need for Chinese education for Chinese people. The Old Hokkien School (which was not restricted to Hokkiens) was an attempt to correct that trend. In 1928 it opened its doors to girls.

It seems a real pity that this grand old building has fallen into disuse.



Banglo Segu is another now-dilapidated building with an interesting past.

According to a 2015 article by Joanna Yap, it originally stood in Kampung Segu, now known as Kampung Benuk, to the south of Kuching. According to the story widely told, it was the little hide-away where Charles Vyner Brooke (the third Rajah of Sarawak) used to take his numerous love interests.

While that's a piquant tale, Yap reports that Sarawak historian John Walker is not convinced. It wasn't that such a story maligned the noble ruler. He was famous as a womanizer, and his affairs were no secret to his wife, Sylvia, who apparently described them in detail. But according to the Ranee's account, Rajah Vyner chose Kuching for his assignations. The omniscient Sylvia says nothing about a country bungalow.

According to Walker, Banglo Segu is more likely to have been built by the second Rajah of Sarawak. Various accounts describe a bungalow built by Rajah Charles, Vyner's father, at Kampung Segu, near his rubber estates. It served a very prosaic purpose as an administrative and tax collection centre. And it was not particularly easy to access, which again casts doubt on its utility as a place to quickly pop down to when passion called.

Nor does its architecture fit with the modernist style that Vyner preferred.

A later occupant of the bungalow, Barbara Harrisson, wife of former Sarawak Museum curator Tom Harrisson, also testifies that it was built by Rajah Charles, somewhere around 1880. And it was this Tom Harrisson, motivated by his own romantic inclinations, who instigated the relocation of the house, in 1947.

Harrisson often made the bungalow available for others to stay in, and one of those who took him up on this offer was Kenyah artist and musician Tusau Padan. He and some fellow-artists were responsible for the wonderful decoration (now out of sight to ordinary folk like us) on the walls and ceilings (see Yap's story for some glimpses).




It's very atmospheric up there, but the building is obviously deteriorating.

I know... The needs are many, and the funds are few. But again -- what a pity.