Old Wooden Plaque

Traditionally, Chinese businessman is very much concern on the wooden plaque with shop name on top of the shop entrance. Tearing down the plaque symbolizing the fall of business and it is always a taboo to disturb the plaque. However, when we walk along five-foot way of old shophouses in downtown, there are many non-operating shops with their plaque left behind, accompanying the mottled wall and rusted gate. The glorious past is no longer remembered, it is just waiting for another chapter to begin.

 

The Old Folding Shutter Door

When time passes, many things change. Some are really obvious (such as telephone, car, fashion, etc.) but some might not be so noticeable. While walking along a quiet Old Town street right beside Huge Low Bridge, Kenion Street (Loring Bijih Timah, I didn't know the street name until I do information search for writing this post), the five foot way which seems to have very little change with old style folding shutter door brought me back to my childhood time. I believe this folding door is a typical style in the years of 1960's & 70's. It's now getting lesser in town and many are replaced by modern roller shutter door that slides vertically.

Old Building Resurrected

After more than a month of restoration, this building which previously OUB Bank is now occupied by Chennai Silk Gallery. This building had been abandoned for many years since OUB Bank merged with UOB Bank and moved to its current Ipoh's headquarter in Greentown. This junction of Hugh Low Street meeting Belfield Street in Old Town had been many times photographed in the old times but this corner lot appearance has completely changed.

Lim Kopi

Having coffee or tea together with toast, snacks, or oriental dishes is your favorite? Now you can enjoy it in a Lim Kopi cafe in Hugh Low Street, right at the oldest part of Ipoh ("Lim Kopi" in local Hokkien dialect means drink coffee). By keeping the building structure, the interior is made to be nostalgic but comfortable. You may really like to have your cup of coffee right here. I also heard the adjacent Oversea Building will be converted into a boutique hotel by the same owner of this cafe. What a nice idea!!

Hugh Low Bridge, The New Look

The progress of Hugh Low Bridge has been shared few times in this blog, saying goodbye to the bridge before it was closed / demolished, it's half way under construction and after reopen for traffic upon main structure work completed. Today the new bridge appeared to be the most beautiful one in Ipoh despite some final touch up works (mainly illumination facilities) still yet to be done. Well, I feel like not to write too much to describe but the photos shall speak better than my sentences.

Viewing through the tower

Inside the tower

Looking towards Old Town on the street

East bank south side

Looking towards New Town at south side

West bank north tower

Viewed from west bank underpass

Looking towards New Town at north side

The overview

Fishing in Sunday

Sunday is a non working day for most people, as well as foreign workers. Many of them originated from other third world countries and staying far away from home to earn for better life in future. I was walking along Hugh Low Bridge and found this guy, whom I believe is a foreign worker, was fishing at Kinta River. May be many would think the polluted river is hardly to get fish, but after I watched for less than a minute, he has got one caught. I was wondering how many more fishes is possibly in the plastic bag beside him. Anyway, instead of hanging around in town during off day, choosing to make use of any available time for benefitial activities is a positive way of living.
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New Hugh Low Bridge Construction Underway

When the old Hugh Low Bridge closed during August last year (as shared in 8-Aug-2009 and 14-Aug-2009), it was planned to be replaced by a new bridge within 15 months that able to withstand the increasing traffic. After the old bridge demolished, a temporary military bridge was built next to it to maintain the traffic of Hugh Low Street between Old Town & New Town. The construction of basic structure when I visited the site on 12-June-2010 was almost completed. And about a month later, the new bridge is opened to public due to the army wanted to retrieve the temporary bridge.
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Anyway, the work is not fully done. There are additional items to be installed which include the original Hugh Low Bridge feature "cross-circle" (or "XO") barrier and four new towers at both end. I took a closer look on the iron XO barrier and compared with some old photos, I believe they are preserved from the old bridge, whereby the towers are something new. From the half complete structure, we already can see the new bridge is designed in western style.

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The decoration is not only limited to street visible surfaces but also on the river visible side. Now it looked much better from the river bank and I like the color applied on it. This may be part of the plan to beautify Kinta River and make it an attractive tourism spot.

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Two Ends of Hugh Low Street

Hugh Low Street is best known downtown street since a century ago. It currently stretches for about 2 kilometers from west to east across the town. The upper photo shows the portion close to one end in New Town while the lower photo is showing the Old Town portion that probably to be considered as the origin spot of Ipoh. Both photos are showing the last row of shophouse at each end but they were built almost half a century apart. I believe very few of the Ipoh citizen nowadays has witnessed the expansion of this township. Since the traffic converted into one-way flow in 1986, the street is basically serving motor vehicles than pedestrian, causing the shops suffer drastic business drop.

Border of Old & New

I am standing at the border that separates Old Town & New Town. This is the first time I categorize this photo as both Old Town & New Town because I just can't tell on which part I should consider I am. Kinta River was the natural barrier in the past urban development of Ipoh. In the right of this photo is west bank where the settlement initiated. Around 1908~1909, the growth of the town crossed to the east bank and started a better planned township which mainly contributed by Yau Tet Shin. Although the city has only gone through a century, but there are many amazing stories to tell about it from the history of rise & fall. Many of us are busy crossing the river everyday. It will be certainly a different feeling if we take a walk slowly on the bridge and across the shop blocks.

New Coat on The Shops

The painting work by city council as published earlier has come to Hugh Low Street. The previous OUB building which is vacant now also converted into the designated color from its original white surface (compare to picture uploaded in 25-October-2009). Although it looked good but I feel like the unique building is now fall in same color as neighbouring shops is lossing its uniqueness. Well, pros & cons, but somehow this is not a bad move. I hope more owners will realize the benefit of maintaining their old properties which is getting less & less nowadays.

People's Park

People's Park is located right next to the west bank of Kinta River in Old Town. When driving down from New Town, it appears on the left after crossing Hugh Low bridge. It used to be an open space in front of Paloh Ku Miu (Paloh Old Temple) long time ago & was once a bazaar of used goods in the Sunday morning. The rest of the time it just served as a car park.

At few years back, the bazaar is relocated to New Town's Horley Street (it's now called Memory Lane). The city council & National Landscape Department then launched the beautification project & build this brand new park. However, the park is not so attarctive to Ipoh citizens & the maintenance is not properly done. Looking towards north-west from the park, Kinta Heights is in sight.

Remaining Structure of the Bridge

In the Hugh Low Bridge reconstruction project, this is the portion of old structure that remains at the moment. The cross & circle pattern is a special feature of old Hugh Low Bridge. Since the crossing river portion is demolished, the cross & circle pattern which is made in metal already disappeared. Anyway, I hope this remaining bricks will be preserved.

Old OCBC Bank Building

This is the previous OCBC bank building which is now vacant. It was one of the landmark of old time Ipoh. The building is located at the first row of shop houses along Old Town Hugh Low Street. I have seen it appears in many photos taken before & after World War II. The photo below is one of it, where the building with the unique architecture can be clearly identified at the right of this street.