Repurposed Heritage: Jalan Sin Chew Kee

The exterior of Sarang Vacation Homes on the street. Image by Maya Tan

Jalan Sin Chew Kee is one of the last heritage rows in KL that has seen some rejuvenation, with many buildings repurposed for commerce. However, the threat of encroachment from new developments remains real.

 

Jalan Sin Chew Kee is one of the last bastions of colonial architecture in Kuala Lumpur. Boasting a short, quiet row of colonial houses, the buildings have mostly been left untouched, their 1920s architecture neither gutted nor painted with garish colours. Stepping onto the street feels like falling into a time warp.

The good news here is that some of these buildings have been repurposed for commerce, targeting the worldly urban dweller (or traveller), meaning that the buildings have had their lives extended. However, the threat of encroachment remains very real.

Just a few metres away the sleek grey towers of the Swiss Garden Residences look down on the street. Across from there, a construction site is carrying out works for the new MRT line. Another hotel, meanwhile has just been finished on the next street, Jalan Galloway. As modern development closes in from all sides, this small haven of heritage residential buildings has been dwarfed and endangered; blink and all this could be gone.

 

Hip hostels and cafes thrive on Jalan Sin Chew Kee. Image by Maya Tan

 

 

The Inner City Conundrum

The quaint houses on Jalan Sin Chew Kee, which are still mostly residential, give way to a block of low-cost flats further down. To say the area is “mixed” would be an understatement. Many lodgings are now rented to migrant workers, who work at building sites nearby while the modern complexes attract affluent expats.

This is not uncommon in most of KL’s inner city areas. While it is impossible to imagine the absence of people living within the city of New York or London, here, it is difficult to imagine living in the core of KL unless you are of a certain income level − either very high or very low.

 

Many of the lower cost residential options are leased to migrant workers. Image by Ling Low

 

 

If you stroll through the streets, admiring the façades and pretty gardens at the start of the neighbourhood, you will suddenly come upon a house with a front yard that looks more like a junkyard. In it, we meet an older woman, who prefers to be addressed only as ‘Makcik’.

Makcik has called Jalan Sin Chew Kee home for over a decade. At the time of our visit, she’s stitching a pair of denim jeans. Leaning on a motorcycle parked within the gates, she’s talking as she sews. All around her, there is discarded evidence of other people’s lives: old clothes, mattresses and even a retro keyboard. Another man is dismantling a rice cooker as we speak.

 

‘Makcik’ is a trader who rents a room in a house of 16 rooms, and has lived there for more than a decade. Image by Ling Low.

 

 

Originally from Kedah, Makcik is a long term tenant of the house, which has no less than 16 rooms inside. She has left her children in the kampung to accompany her husband, who is employed in the city. Along with some of the other tenants, she sorts recycled ware and prepares them for sale as a means of extra income.

Between hip establishments such as Barlai, a speakeasy for KL-ites who want something different, to VCR Cafe pandering to coffee connoisseurs on the next street, there is clearly a gap between the intended audience of rejuvenation and people such as Makcik, or her migrant neighbours, who also have every right to be there.

Rejuvenation, gentrification or modernisation are some of the words used to describe the changes in this neighbourhood, depending on who you ask. But the changes are happening, and happening now.

 

The entrance to Barlai, a since-closed speakeasy by the BIG Group. Image by Maya Tan

 

 

Community Spirit

According to Michael Fong and Christina Foo, who have lived on Jalan Sin Chew Kee for the last 20 years, as the street’s older residents move away or pass on, the houses are rented out to people who “may not look after the place very well.”

The couple started Sarang Vacation Homes as a means of income for their retirement about 8 years ago, but business has been good and so it has become a full-time occupation for them, even resulting in a new offspring − Sarang Cookery − on Jalan Galloway, serving a menu of local favourites.

As Michael explains, the homestay provides a more unique travel experience to tourists than a five-star hotel or backpackers’ lodge. “The character of the area has remained almost the same,” Michael says. “It’s a forgotten oasis in KL.”

Michael adds that he’s not concerned about new commercial openings unless they interfere with the “ambience, environment and feel of the place.” According to him, there were plans to open a convenience store on Jalan Galloway but these were shelved after opposition from locals. The mom-and-pop convenience store, Pasar Mini Superimas, stands proudly next to a mamak restaurant, however, which bolsters hope for the community spirit to thrive.

“It’s one of the very last places of its nature in KL and I hope it won’t change but as with most cities, it’s quite inevitable that budget hotels and high-rises will come,” he says. “There has been little attempt to sell KL as KL − as it really is − beyond malls and foot reflexology.”

“It’s a forgotten oasis in KL.” – Michael Fong, Sarang Vacation Homes

Another champion for the community on Jalan Sin Chew Kee is Tony Yeoh, the proprietor of the No Name Wanton Mee stall (it’s on Google maps), which operates in the back lane between Jalan Sin Chew Kee and Jalan Galloway. We find the stall sheltering quite a sizeable crowd of residents and office workers from the sun. When we ask for coffee, Tony offers a gentle warning: “We only have normal coffee.”

Perhaps this caveat is due to VCR Cafe, which opened three years ago − a chic place which takes its beans and brews very seriously. We assure Tony that “normal” kopi-O is fine. As he prepares the wanton noodles, he points out that everything is cooked over charcoal − a rare method that he hopes to sustain.

The stall was first started by Tony’s grandmother, but he tells us that it was closed for about eight years before he decided to open it again. “I wanted to get the community going, to keep local culture alive and I wanted to do it with Wanton Mee,” he says.

 

Tony Yeoh of the No Name Wanton Mee Stall hopes his traditional cooking will foster a community spirit. Image by Ling Low

 

 

Old and new co-exist on the street. Image by Maya Tan

 

 

New Blood

Ng Seksan, the architect who converted 3, Jalan Sin Chew Kee into guesthouse retreat Sekeping Sin Chew Kee, believes that mixed development could help preserve some of the buildings in the area. “I don’t see a conflict in mixing residential with commercial,” he says. “Our old shophouses are built on this model − residential upstairs, and business downstairs.”

Seksan hopes that the Jalan Sin Chew Kee area will not go the same way as the Asian Heritage Row in Jalan Doraisamy prior to its ‘relaunch’, with “no life in the daytime.” The troubled row of heritage residences had recently undergone a revision in its commercial mix, creating more diversity in restaurants, shops and cafes on the street, as opposed to the majority of nightclubs that had previously reigned.

The trendy VCR Cafe balances industrial edge with heritage details. Image by Ling Low

Seksan adds: “I’d like to see a thriving mix of social entrepreneurship, unplanned and spontaneous; from recycling shops to ‘chi chi’ cafes.” His fear would be to see the old houses torn down and replaced with “homogenous bores”, as seen in other parts of the city.

One of the repurposed buildings housing Sekeping Sin Chew Kee. Image by Maya Tan

“I don’t see a conflict in mixing residential with commercial. Our old shophouses are built on this model − residential upstairs, and business downstairs.” – Ng Sek San, Seksan Design

Back to the Future

Cause and effect in urban development is rarely simple. Jalan Sin Chew Kee stands on prime city property, and some might say that it’s a matter of time that the street will soon be lost to high-density buildings in the style of the Swiss Garden Residences. Yet new businesses can also breathe hope into the neighbourhood and their interest could rejuvenate the area − giving outsiders a reason to fight for its preservation against modern high-rise hotels.

On the other hand, if the balance tilts too much towards commercialising existing buildings, this could force out locals who have lived there for generations. Inevitably, the neighbourhood’s future depends on the individuals whose lives are tied to it: from the tenant to the entrepreneur, the architect to the property developer. For now, the streets remain a link to the past: a pocket of forgotten heritage where people continue to eat, sleep, work and play.

 


This story was based on source material from ‘A Walk on Jalan Sin Chew Kee’ by Ling Low, published in ‘STORIES FROM THE CITY: Rediscovering Kuala Lumpur. Selected Stories from POSKOD.MY ‘ in 2016 and was edited and adapted with permission from Poskod.my.

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