The Standard Chartered Bank Building, is a historical building in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. Completed in 1909, it is situated on the south side of Independence Square, and served as the main branch of the former

Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (informally The Chartered Bank) was a bank incorporated in London in 1853 by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.

which was later absorbed into

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...

History

Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, known as Chartered Bank, founded in London in 1853, became the leading bank in

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British Empire, British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. Unlike the ...

, and was the first bank to be established in Kuala Lumpur when it opened a branch in Market Street (now Leboh Pasar Besar) above a row of shop houses in 1888. In 1891, the bank moved to new premises at the current site which, due to the proximity of the police headquarters in Bluff Road (now Jalan Bukit Aman), was considered more secure. The new premises, consisting of a single storey, soon proved inadequate due to the bank's rapid expansion of its business, and a new three-storey building was commissioned to replace it which was opened in December 1909. In 1926, when the Klang and Gomback rivers burst their banks due to heavy rain, the bank was flooded and millions of dollars of bank notes and bank documents were laid outside on the ground to dry. During the 1960s, the building served temporarily as the National History Museum while the construction of Malaysia's new National Museum was taking place. Other tenants have included the District and Land Office, and the Department of Islamic Affairs of the Federal Territories, and from 2015 to 2017 it was home to the Music Museum. Currently vacant, concern has been raised regarding its dilapidating condition, while the Selangor Government has stated that it intends to convert the building into a tourist information centre. The building has been gazetted as a National Heritage Building under the Antiquities Act.

Description

The building's design, which incorporates elements of the

Indo-Saracenic Indo-Saracenic architecture (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal) was a Revivalism (architecture), revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and gov ...

style, features horseshoe shaped arches around the porch and the windows on the ground floor, while windows on the upper floors feature scalloped edges. Four domes made of hardwood, are positioned at each corner of the roof.

References

{{coord, 3.14755, 101.68750, format=dms, type:landmark_region:MY, display=title Buildings and structures in Kuala Lumpur 1909 establishments in British Malaya