Through the wheels of time January 29, 2021 – Posted in: In The News, Reviews

Arnold Loh, The Star THE nostalgia hits many locals on busy Penang Road. From the Chulia Street-Penang Road junction towards Komtar, commuters will come across parallel steel tramlines, built sometime between 1880 and 1906. Road builders dug them up by accident in 2004 while replacing underground utility cables. To make them invulnerable to the grinding wheel of time, the road running along the tramlines is encased not in normal asphalt but solid concrete. This preserved…

Penang trams – Posted in: In The News

This page is about Penang Trams. George Town was one of the first cities in the region to introduce trams, ahead of even Calcutta and Singapore. A steam tramway with a single metre gauge line commenced operation in the 1880s linking Weld Quay in the town centre with Ayer Itam, four miles away across picturesque scenery and coconut plantations. It was used both as a passenger service and to transport farm produce to the docks…

Introduction to Book Four of “Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India” February 15, 2013 – Posted in: Excerpts

(please click here to find more excerpts from the book) Book Four is entitled: “Suffolk House” Perhaps more than any other early building in Penang, Suffolk House represents the high expectations that were held for the island as the fourth presidency of India. Indeed it seems to have mirrored the changing fortunes of the island: planned at a time when the promise of Penang becoming the principal British naval hub on the eastern side of India…

Introduction to Book Three of “Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India” – Posted in: Excerpts

Book Three is entitled: “Government House” (To read the entire introduction to Book Three, please click here) Francis Light’s many years of experience as a trader in the eastern seas, together with his repeated personal recommendations for the utilization of Penang as an East India Company port, led to his being charged with settlement and superintendence of the island in 1786. The position carrie far more responsibility than he had known before. Although an arduous and…

Introduction to Book Two of “Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India” – Posted in: Excerpts

Book Two is entitled: “The Administrators” (To read the entire introduction to Book Two, please click here) In the previous book, the interplay between the East India Company’s administration and the British government was briefly touched upon, as was the prevailing politics at the turn of the nineteenth century. It is helpful here to offer an overview of how the East India Company administration operated both at home and in its territories. The word ‘government’ is…

Introduction to Book One of “Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India” – Posted in: Excerpts

Book one is entitled: “Ships for a Presidency” (To read the entire introduction to Book One, as well as the book’s general Introduction, please click here) It may appear unusual to begin a history of early Penang with a study of shipbuilding. However, in the days when slow, timber sailing vessels were the mainstays of international trade, a primary requirement was for regular and safe stopover points: sea ports with an ability to provide a facility…

“Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India” Geoff Wade’s Foreword – Posted in: Excerpts

(please click here to find more excerpts from the book) Geoff Wade is from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore The island of Penang has long attracted – through its fascinating streetscapes and scenery, its diverse populace, cultural heterogeneity and its vibrant history – quite an amount of attention from writers, popular and academic. Historians have been no exception to this and a wide selection of studies has been published examining diverse aspects of the Penang past.…