Restored and Move Forward

I have posted several times about this building, back in 2009 and May this year. From the very beginning as a hotel during the years when I wasn't exist in this world, to the fast food restaurant in 1980's (Gandy's, any Ipoh folks still remember?), to electrical appliances shop. The cycle of getting abandoned and occupied had been repeated several times. This building has gone through ups and downs, and recently just being restored again to become a supermarket. Amazingly, the new owner appreciates the building original architecture pretty well, where it is repainted to outline the window frames and the embossed old Chinese characters on its facade. I hope the building will be continuously well-maintained and I am sure this is one of the masterpieces in Ipoh that worth to be preserved for our future generations.

Another Building Goes Empty

7 years after my previous post that published at 15-May-2009, this building has lost its last tenant, a home appliances shop. I am not sure this is due to the impact of economic downturn or some other factors, but I do observe there are many properties around the city are pasted with such yellow poster by property agents looking for occupants. It seems situation is getting tougher nowadays.

New Town Children's Playground

How many of us still remember the Children's Playground at Anderson Road? It used to be a popular playground and recreation park in New Town decades ago, which is still a sweet memory of many Ipoh folks. Indeed the park was directly accessible from Anderson Road, Brewster Road and Osborne Street in the past. Somehow its boundaries at Brewster Road and Osborne Street are now occupied by modern building and hawker stalls respectively. The landscape and structures in the park appeared to be poorly maintained, and we do not see children playing in the park.

Rex Goes Empty Again

After some years, the building of previous Rex Cinema is going empty again. The furniture shop had occupied for few years and is now moved to somewhere else in town, leaving this old cinema building an unknown fate. This is right in the heart of Ipoh city. Will it be demolished for making new building, or it will be remained & turned into some other purpose?

Another Defeat in Heritage Preservation

I couldn't believe this would happen so fast. Before I could post some other photos within the week, the damage on these shophouses has begin. As I have just mentioned in my last post on 30 November, there are not many block of pre-war shophouse in Ipoh downtown could remain entirely untouched. However, the current owner just do not appreciate the architecture of pre-war buildings, or having no interest to restore the old buildings and choose to tear them down. This is exactly the same "tragedy" which had happened to the shophouses which stood at Chung On Siew Street, current Ibis Style Hotel location, and the block of shops at Hume Street. If the wealthy corporates or business men continue to put aside the value of heritage building and destroying this evident that witnessed the city's growth, it will be meaningless when we tell our future generations & visitors about the history of Ipoh. Many would think that heritage preservation is just to maintain some of the well-known buildings. This is simply an excuse which equivalent to letting a tree remain while the entire forest is being wiped off.

Anderson Road Shophouses

Knock down pre-war shophouse & reconstruction has been commonly practiced in Ipoh. We can hardly find an entire row of shophouse which is completely remained untouched. Just like this row along Anderson Road. However, some dismantling work is seen at these shophouses and it is carried out almost in all of this block. I am suspecting something aggressive is planned. Could it be a nice preservation project to restore all these shophouses for new business, or it may be reaching its final destination soon?

Another High Rise Project

Right beside the east bank of Kinta River, along Anderson Road, signboard of a proposed high rise building is put up. This is supposing a Sovo & hotel project by local developer Keris Properties. The illustration is indeed quite impressive, which there are floating cafes & floating restaurants available. It is about 1km upstream of Kinta Riverfront Hotel. If the project turn up to be successful, the stretch of Kinta River between Anderson Road and Lim Bo Seng bridge could be river-themed tourism spot.

Old Man Walking

Downtown of Ipoh has been changing drastically in the past 3 decades. Scene of bustling streets during years of 1970's and 80's no longer exist. For the generation that lived here for more than half a century, it would be dreary when walking with his lonely steps on the previously busy five-foot-way.
 

Hotel Hotel

If you ask an Ipoh citizen of what is the fastest growing industry in this city, I believe the answer should not differ much from this word, hotel. Probably this is not the only angle in Ipoh city that I could capture multiple hotels at one shot. The phenomena of hotel mushrooming in this city still making people wondering how Ipoh that is not a tourism city and not an industrial or commercial hub can feed these hotels for their survival. Moreover, there are several new major hotel projects launched in the city.

 

Faded Paint

The faded paint at this pillar probably can tell us how long the shoplot has been left vacant. While I was thinking this radio shop is no longer exist, I am surprise to find it has moved to the opposite row, which seen in background of this photo. By the way, the building occupancy is quite poor along this part of Anderson Road. The corridor always quiet day & night.

Once A Popular Chair

Drawing Customer Attention

Spinning colorful fan is now quite commonly seen around Ipoh as a simple and low cost way to draw people's attention on a particular shop or outlet, apart from banner and signboard. It is also a decorative item in some kindergartens & schools. Probably some better ideas shall be derived from this simple fan that make use of natural power to generate auxiliary energy supply.

Remembering Angel Supermarket

This four and a half storey building at the crossing of Anderson Road & Clare Street is now occupied by Kamdar, the nationwide well-known textile store. However, for Ipoh citizen above 30's of age, they should know this is originally a popular supermarket in early 1980's, so called Angel (安琪儿). That was the time Ipoh had few supermarkets like Beauty, Crescendo, Perak Emporium, Dayi & Kwong Fatt which were all operating in almost similar scale. When Angel came up, it was one of the largest among all & if I not mistaken, the first escalator in Ipoh is inside this building. During the time when I was a kid, we were so eager to go Angel to ride the escalator & also having ice-cream, which was not available in other supermarkets. For some years, Angel became a most welcomed name in Ipoh. However, the glorious did not last long. When Super Kinta rose with brand new shopping concept & facilities, Angel and other traditional supermarkets were badly hit and eventually sank. It has been so long from the closure of Angel and many thing about it has faded away in memory. Those I can remember clearly are the escalator, ice cream & my first watch that bought from Angel. Anyway, I lost it in a drain in front of school about a year later and the incident claimed so much of my tears.

No Theater on Theater Street

The street is so called Theater Street because the first theater or cinema in New Town was loacted here. If I am not mistaken, it should be Capitol Cinema (京都戏院). The cinema is at the junction between Theater Street & Anderson Road. When driving along Anderson Road & Chamberlain Road from north to south, there are four old cinemas i.e. Ruby, Capitol, Rex & Majestic. Three of these cinema buildings still exist and all are converted into furniture gallery. However, Capitol Cinema has been disappeared from the horizon in an inferno at least 20 years ago . The site was left vacant and served as a car park for so many years. In 2010, the car park finally closed and give way to the construction of a 3 & 4-storey shop lot project. After almost a quarter century, the site is eventually welcoming a new building. Anyway, there will be no longer any trace about a theater along Theater Street. Capitol Cinema will be just a memory to the older generation & it only appeared in limited number of photos.

Summer Paradise & Folie Folie

There was an old bungalow at this location, the junction between Anderson Road & Green Lane (Jalan Dato Seri Ahmad Said) that used to be a furniture galley before its demolition. A new building is built here and it turns up to be an amusement center Summer Paradise that come with a western restaurant Folie Folie Cafe & Grill. The building can be seen from Tower Regency Hotel (as posted in 6-Nov-2010) with its striking neon lights. There are some karaoke rooms & a fun pub in the building while the restaurant is operating in a separate unit at its side. I visited the restaurant & karaoke once each and find this is quite a nice place for night life. I believe it also attarcts guests from Tower Regency Hotel which is just within few minutes walking distance.

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Classic Art

Some common things that were used daily in the past have become something special nowadays. In the process of modernization, most Chinese tend to seek for simpler and more convenience solutions that lead to lost of many traditional practices. Some classic products & traditional costume were also left behind. It was even considered outdated where someone would feel shameful for using traditional stuff. Luckily the consciousness of preserving tradition is gradually recovering. Anyway, the traditional items are no longer popular like in the old days. It can only be found at some specialized shops. I found this place in Anderson Road, so called "Classic Art", is offering tradition stuff mainly for wedding. It also provides training or course for those who interested to become Chinese wedding coordinator (known as "dai kum jay" in Cantonese, 大扲姐). Well, I believe with creativity, we can find the balance point for integrating tradition elements into modern daily life in order to keep the beauty part of old time lifestyle.

A Rainy Morning

This is a rainy Sunday morning. I believe many would find this is just a nice & relaxing rest day which is cool & refreshing. The rain approaching city center from Kledang Mountain Range and slowly covering the limestone hill, Cheroh Hill along Anderson Road. The rainy days may prolong for some time as several neighbouring northern states are now stroke by heavy rain & flood.

Evening in Town

When day starts turning dark, the civilian on the street become lesser. Only cars are roaring and moving fast on the road. This area used to be crowded at night with people shopping at the complex and watching movies in the 3 nearby traditional cinemas, which are all converted to other purposes now.

Return of the Camera

The update of this blog was ceased for a month because the camera broke down. Finally it's back on function today after repair. The sunset captured through backyard of shop houses at New Town. .

Looking into Past

When walking in this kind of old shop corridor, it always makes me imagining how it looked like 50~60 years ago. This walkway was busy with shops open for business. There are tailors, coffee shops, retailers, barbers, etc. Families staying at first floor had their kids paying along the corridor and people walking around looking for goods they need to buy. There could be some trishaws on the road waiting for passengers. Today, the corridor become quiet; families have moved to new residential areas, many shops are closed, heavy traffic on the road with engine roars loudly, people not walking on the corridor but just park the car, drop by for their business and leave.