Announcement – Exhibition on the Perak Sultanate: 1874 onwards

* Entrance is FREE!

Lam Looking Bazaar

Lam Looking Bazaar in its glory days. (Source: Arkib Negara Malaysia)

This is a landmark well known to all Ipoh-ites. Lam Looking Bazaar was named after its owner, Lam Look Ing, Kinta tin miner and property magnate, who hailed from Penang. The bazaar is an art deco building built in 1931.

IpohWorld’s World has this description of the bazaar:

“The Celestial Cabaret and hotel upstairs was a favourite haunt of European expatriates. During the war, Japanese military officers patronised the cabaret which was also a Japanese casino (gambling farm) during the Occupation and a grenade target during the Emergency.

“As the Perak Emporium it was a major shopping centre from when it opened in the late 1960’s until it closed in the late 1980’s. It also had retail shops at street level, with smaller lots fronting an oval courtyard. Lot No. 8 was journalist Ahmad Noor Abdul Shukor’s ‘Blue Room’. Fook Seng, at Lot No. 6 retailed gramophones, keronchong songs and Arabic music.”

Lam Looking Bazaar has seen better days and is currently dilapidated following a fire in 2005.

Lam Looking Bazaar, as of 10 December 2009. Photo courtesy of YM Raja Mariam binti Raja Mohamed Iskandar

The back of Lam Looking Bazaar, as of 10 December 2009. Photo courtesy of YM Raja Mariam binti Raja Mohamed Iskandar

Reference:
1. IpohWorld’s World. Lam Looking Bazaar Restoration Seems to Have STOPPED!
2. Images of Ipoh. Lam Looking Bazaar.

Ipoh airport, 1959

A DC-3 on the Ipoh airport tarmac. (Source: Arkib Negara Malaysia)

Ipoh airport is located near Gunung Rapat. It was one of the four destinations served by Malayan Airways Limited (MAL), the others being Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore.

A time table for Malayan Airways Ltd. (Source: Björn Larsson/David Zekria)

The airport is now named Sultan Azlan Shah Airport, and the IATA code for Ipoh is IPH. Due to its geographic location, expansion is not possible and the airport serves domestic flights only.