Beach Street, George Town

Plan of Beach Street and side streets
The surviving wing of the old Penang Government Secretariat on Beach Street, now the Islamic Council Building
The Standard Chartered Bank building at 2 Beach Street. Malaysia's oldest bank. Beach Street has been the island's premier financial centre for almost 150 years.
The HSBC Bank Building. Late Art Deco, 1948. Erected to replace the earlier building (1906), which was destroyed during the Second World War.
The ABN AMRO Bank, which now houses the Royal Bank of Scotland. The turret on the left was originally topped with a cupola, as evidenced in old postcards.

Beach Street (Malay: Lebuh Pantai) is the main thoroughfare of George Town's historic Core Zone on the island of Penang, Malaysia. It was constructed in 1786-87 with the arrival of Francis Light, and is therefore, along with Light Street, one of the oldest surviving roads in Malaysia. As begets its name, Beach Street was originally a coastal road built along George Town's eastern beachhead, and was an important commercial and financial centre during British rule. It also hosted several government complexes, which complemented the nearby magistrates' courts on Light Street (now the State Assembly Building).

Reclamation works from 1883-89 resulted in an extension of the coastline and the creation of Weld Quay, as well as several ghauts (side streets), leading to a minor decline in business along Beach Street as it shifted further inland. Nevertheless, the street continued to flourish as the island's central banking district , and many of these banks still operate to the present day.

List of buildings on Upper Beach Street

Upper Beach Street houses many striking buildings from the British era, with a wide variety of architectural styles. The following is a partial list:

See also

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