57 Maclister Road.

Site Visit Report: 57 Macalister Road
Sunday, 3 August, 2008
Report by Timothy Tye, PHT Council Member

57 Macalister Road was the venue of the Penang Heritage Trust Site Visit on 3 August 2008. The site visit was held at 3:30pm on Sunday, 3 August, 2008, and was attended by members and friends numbering around seventy.

PHT Trustee Dato Anwar Fazal opened the site visit by introducing 57 Macalister Road. Our host was Mr Patrick Khoo, Director of Management Services at the Municipal Council of Penang Island (MPPP). Mr Khoo gave a briefing explaining the history of the building.

57 Macalister Road came about from a proposal initiated in 1912 by two gentlemen, William Evans and William Peel, that a maternity hospital be set up in memory to King Edward VII. Among the major donors to the hospital fund included the Huttenbach brothers, Tye Kee Yoon, the 4th Chinese Consul to Penang, the Sarkies Brothers of E & O Hotel fame, the various clan associations, and other pillars of early 20th century Penang society. The complex was used as the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital from 1915 until 1955. More research is still required to determine its history.

In 1955 the maternity hospital moved to its present premises along Jalan Residensi. A cout order was called for the building to be used for charitable purposes. In order to generate an income for its upkeep, a petition was made that a part of the building be rented out to that regard.

Between the 1950's to the 1980's, 57 Macalister Road was occupied by many different tenants including the St John Ambulance Organisation and Bulan Sabit Merah organisation. It was also used as a training centre for adult education. The centre acted as a school providing skills training in electronics, metalwork and the like to youth who were unable to proceed beyond Form Three. These youth attend evening classes while being employed as parking attendants during the day.

After the history briefing by Patrick Khoo and Dato Anwar, the floor was passed to Encik Anuar, the restoration architect, who took the participants for a tour of the building, and further explained the restoration work involved. The restoration attempted to be sympathetic to the original design, with compromises in keeping with present-day needs. One of them was the installation of glass panels and the conceal of air conditioning ducts.

On the tour, we visited a block within the complex that has not yet undergone restoration. It gave us an idea of how the building looked like before restoration. More research work is still needed to gather information regarding the history of 57 Macalister Road, including the functions of the different blocks in the complex.


Patrick Khoo, the Director of Management Services, and Dato Anwar, PHT Trustee, giving participants a background on the history of 57 Macalister Road.


Encik Anuar, the restoration architect, giving an explanation about 57 Macalister Road, in the company of Dato Anwar and Patrick Khoo.


View of Block C from Block D of 57 Macalister Road.


Unrestored Block F at 57 Macalister Road.


Photographs by Timothy Tye courtesy of Penang Travel Tips