Fair Park, 1938
picture courtesy of: Ruth Iversen Rollitt
Remember these shop houses? Yes, this was Fair Park back in 1938. These shops were Iversen’s designs nonetheless. Sadly, they’re no more 🙁
picture courtesy of: Ruth Iversen Rollitt
May 2016
picture courtesy of: Ruth Iversen Rollitt
April 2015
In Memory of the Fair Park Houses…
Picture from Ruth Iversen Rollitt
“Rental was $60 a month, a bargain in the immediate post-war years with the shortage of housing. Each house had 3 bedrooms upstairs; and downstairs. a living room, dining room, a modern flush toilet (very rare for Ipoh at that time), a small kitchen and backyard. There was a built-in wood fired stove….A concrete stairway near the front door took you up to the first floor bedrooms and bathroom. There was an under-stairs storage area and next to it the toilet. All the windows were of the steel casement type…..The houses were built in 1937 by Loke Wan Yatt….The architect was the well known Berthol M. Iversen.”
The extract above is taken from the book “Ipoh – My Home Town”. Remember these houses (picture above)? It’s a pity they’re gone now – demolition began in 2009, around the same time the Fair Park shop houses (across the road) were knocked down.
September 2009
Fair Park Shophouses Bite the Dust
This photograph taken by Wang Shaoming just a few months ago shows the row of 1930’s shophouses at what I like to think of as the far end of Fair Park. They look dilapidated, but with the curved end did display a certain character of their own and one wonders why the owners did not tidy them up ( a steam clean and coat of paint would have helped) rrather than leave them deteriorating. But as the next picture shows the reason is clear – They were planned for demolition!
Taken today this shows the back of the buildings and I am sure we shall be privileged to see more photos of this and other happenings around Ipoh over the coming weeks. Keep up the good work Shaoming.