Heritage Prewar Shophouses

Prewar Shophouse along Armenian Street

Ground Floor of Prewar Shophouse

Ground Floor of another Prewar Shophouse

Prewar Shophouses

Prewar shop houses were built during British Malaya ie 19th to early 20th century, according to colonial guidelines that differentiate them from other shop houses in South East Asia. Constructed between 1800’s to 1940’s, they were usually two to three story high, sharing a common wall ( party walls) and have commercial activities conducted on the ground floor with upper floors for residential usage. Some were purely for residence.

The colonial guidelines (laid down by Raffles Ordinances 1822) stipulated that they were to be built with stone and with a tiled roof ( to reduce chances of fire), to be located on a grid with the road system ( right angles to the road) and to be built with a covered walkway along the road frontage, measuring 5 foot from road to the front of the house ( 5 foot way ). In addition to the guidelines, shop houses were constructed to ease the discomfort of the tropical climate. They had courtyards and/or air wells to provide natural ventilation and to admit natural daylight, timber planked floors to allow air to flow through the gaps as well as high ceilings. As the property was taxed according to the width of the house frontage, the shop fronts were narrow, but the length of the house would stretch to more than 100 ft back.

During the second decade of the 20th Century, Malaya was booming from the exports of rubber and tin. As such, the facades of shop houses tended to be more elaborate and more ornamental , mixed with Chinese, Malay and European classical details – an eclectic mix of British colonial, ethnic Chinese and indigenous Malay influence that was and is unique to Malaya and the Straits Settlements shop houses.