Breathing Life Back Into Suffolk House

Penang* is one of my favourite places in Malaysia and George Town is without doubt my favourite city. It has inspiring colonial architecture, a bustling atmosphere and fantastic food.

In 2008 the old city centre of George Town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The Penang state authorities have since been working to develop a strategy to ensure that George Town is preserved for future generations. The UK, being mildly obsessed with heritage preservation, has a great deal of experience at regenerating inner city areas by using art and culture to breathe life back into old spaces. The British Council have therefore been working hard to bring the Penang state government and Khazanah together with experts in the field. In January, Donald Hyslop, of the Tate Modern and a veteran of the Bankside Development on the south bank of the Thames spent a few days talking to local experts and explaining some of the things we have done right – and wrong.

This provided an opportunity for Mandy Johnson, Director of the British Council in Malaysia to host a reception at Suffolk House*. I joined her at the event and was glad to have the opportunity to meet up with old friends from the Penang Government, the Penang Heritage Trust and the local community. It was a particular pleasure to meet up again with Laurence Loh, the architect responsible for the splendid restoration of Suffolk House.

Consular staff at the reception

Suffolk House

*Penang: The island of Penang was the first part of Malaysia that the British discovered.  Capt. Francis Light of the East India Company recognised the island as a safe and suitable harbour for the Company’s ships and managed to negotiate a Treaty with the Sultan of Queda (now Kedah), which allowed the Company to use Pulau Penang “in return for a force to assist him against the people of Selangore”.  Light was appointed Superintendent of Penang in 1786 and christened the new settlement Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir apparent, the future George IV.  He named the capital George Town after the reigning sovereign George III.

*Suffolk House: This was Francis Light’s residence and was named after the county in which he was born. It has recently re-opened to the general public following extensive restoration. The total cost of refurbishing and restoring Suffolk House was RM 6 million comprising RM 2 million each from HSBC, the State Government and public fund raising. To mark Donald Hyslop’s visit I handed over to YB Chow Kon Yeow, Executive Council member responsible for Local Government, Traffic Management and Environment (representing the Chief Minister) a facsimile copy, found for me by the British Library, of Francis Light’s 1791 Treaty with the Sultan of Kedah, under which “the English Company” undertook to pay 6,000 Mexican dollars a year for the use of the island of Penang.