About Brickfields aka Sentral
This is a short observation of the location and has not had any in-
depth study or research. It is
intended that a study group led by
Ar. Jimmy Lim could conduct some form of study of this area.
Approaches to local Universities will be made.
1 A good account about Brickfields
is written by John Gullick in his book
on the “Early History of Kuala Lumpur.”
2 Is 15 miles from Kajang. Until to
day its Chinese name is still referred
to in Cantonese as “the 15th Mile”. Every taxi driver in KL knows the Chinese name of Brickfields as “the 15th mile”. It was 15 miles “up river” from Kajang in the early days of settlement of KL. KL was “further
up river”, from Brickfields, the earlier settlement.
3 It got its name from the brick
factory that was set up by Yap Ah Loy to supply bricks for the construction of the Sultan Abdul Samad building. It was cheaper than getting bricks from Singapore. There was also a lot of clay in the vicinity
of Brickfields. Not sure where the location of the factory was.
4 It was also where the shuttering yard for the railway was. It attracted many Tamil Indians and Ceylonese workers to the new mode of transportation.
5 The railway South-goods yard as
it was known later, was redeveloped by the UDA into the main hub for all railway links for KL. It is now called
the Sentral. Besides the rail terminal there are up market apartments and hotels. There are plans to further develop this site. There are numerous sites in and around Brickfields that
has been earmarked for future developments.
6 Similarly in the early days of transportation, the main mode of transportation was the bullock carts.
A trip to Rawang was a full day’s journey. Starting at about five in the morning the bullocks would reach the hills where Templer’s Park is at about lunch time. There was a break for lunch and a change of fresh bullocks to carry on the journey towards Rawang, which would end at about between four to five o’clock in the evening.
7 It became a large settlement for the Indian and Ceylonese communities hence the development of many shops to cater for their daily needs. Many of them stayed in railway quarters and Government provided facilities. Some of these housing are still standing along Jalan Rosario, Jalan Chan Ah Tong and around the “Padang”. Many lived in squatter houses cheek by jowl with other Chinese inhabitants. These squatter houses were present until 2002
when with the construction of the Monorail system the inhabitants were
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evacuated and the houses
demolished. A large section nearer
the river was burnt in a large fire sometime in mid1980s.
8 Among the prominent inhabitants who hailed from Brickfields was Ceylonese-Malaysian businessman Ananda Krishman. His family house which was a semi-detached timber bungalow has been restored and maintained for a number of years.
9 Within this small enclave there are many religious buildings and places
of worship. There are many Christian churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, a Syrian Christian Church Synagogue. Of course the National mosque is located just across the
road opposite the Railway station.
10 The main road Jalan Tun
Sambathan has become an Indian shopping enclave and is extremely colourful during the Hindu festive periods. It is a little India of sorts.
India goods are available in every
shop along this stretch of road.
11 There are many small eating
stalls which are popular and serve
a large population. They are open
every evening till midnight. Every Thursdays there is a “pasar-malam” (night market) where relatively inexpensive produce and other consumables that is sold directly to
the consumer households of Brickfields.
12 The Vevikananda Ashrama, the YMCA, Malaysian Association for
the Blind, Temple of the Fine Arts
is also located here.
13 There are many Schools and Institutions of higher learning
situated here. The De La Salle Brickfields, St Teresa School,
Methodist Girls School, Brickfields College, Masseurs training
centre for the blind. Along
Jalan Thambipillay are many blind reflexology outlets and sprinkled amongst them are some notable establishments.
14 There is a good mix of trades in
the brickfields area with a concentration of printers and paper suppliers.
15 Many double-storey residential
row houses on the property of the railways along Brickfields Road or Jalan Tun Sambanthan were demolished to make way for the
new Sentral.
16 There are many notable restaurants. There are many Indian both veg. and non veg. cuisine available. The Dewi’s Banana leaf
was the most famous. Among the Chinese restaurants are the Woo
Lan restaurant along Jalan Scott
and Sin Kee. Both these restaurants were previously located elsewhere
in Brickfields and were relocated.
Woo Lan was relocated when
NLFCS that owned the land that they
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were squatting on for many years was taken back for future development that had as yet not started. That enclave used to house a Chinese lodging house called the South East Asia Hotel. It was setback from the main road with an
access that was through an arched portal between rows of shop- houses that housed the original Dewi’s restaurant. There is a little story about the original owner of Woo Lan restaurant to be related. Sin Kee was housed in an attap hut along Jalan Tun Sambanthan next to the Shell station. When those railway quarters along Jalan Tun Sambanthan were demolished the huts were also demolished. They serve the best of Hainanese/semi-colonial type of cuisine and are very popular.
17 Brickfields have a large population of permanent inhabitants and also an increase in transient residents catered for by the YMCA. There are also many three star and tourist hotels that adds on to the diversified cultural quality of is urban neighbourhood. Generally most of the permanent inhabitants live flats above, some in bungalows and others above the traditional 4-storey walk-up shop houses that still exist. More recently there had been some high density developments the earlier ones were the Crescent Court (where the late Tan Sri Mubin Sheppard lived in an apartment until his demise), Palm Court, the Pebbles, the Cuepac flats, the Scotts Condominium and Sentral’s Suasana Condominiums. There are some other developments earmarked but awaiting approvals.
18 An interesting study of how a historic town that grew as a result of tin mining activities up stream causing it to flourished and later with the introduction of the railways it had grown to become the centre for distribution and transportation of goods through out the Malay Peninsula, had grown gracefully with time and adapted itself unwittingly to become the hub for both metropolitan transport and international travel.
19 There are many Chinese, Ceylonese and Indian guilds associations located in Brickfields.
20 Interestingly there are many massage outlets by blind masseurs and other reflexology places also run by the blind. It is an interesting racial mix.
20 Interesting to study how historic Brickfields had developed and assimilated modern growth its midst without losing its quality of life or the exuberance, of evolution without compromising its heritage qualities. And this needs to be protected to showcase a Malaysian story.
Thursday, 08 July 2004
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