The New Club Taiping

The New Club Taiping is actually an old club, it is in fact the oldest club in South East Asia.  The origin of the club can be traced back to the British Administration period in history where planters needed a place to meet and socialise.  The history of The New Club can easily be found in many other blogs and thus there is no need for me to re-mention it here.  What interests me is the fact that much of the "colonial" aspects of the physical club house still remained intact and functioning.    From the roof right down to the toilet, traces of its colonial past are still there.

This official board was erected by the town council to give a brief history of the New Club which was said to be established in 1894.

 This is the old wooden building where the present day administration office, library and guest chambers are located.  Built in colonial style on concrete pillars, not much of the design has changed.

The walls and windows still retained its original shape and design.  And even the awning for each of the windows are so well restored.  I have not seen a better preserved wooden awning like this one anywhere else in town.

Although there has been a bit of adaptation done to enable air-conditioning, the windows still have the old-fashioned awnings which add character to the building. 

This is inside the man's toilet.  No where else in town has the colonial day urinal been better preserved and is still in service.   Even the ventilation windows are from the original toilet.   

     These urinals look so solid and can still last for a few more centuries if they are properly managed. 

On closer inspection, one could still see the trademark of the manufacturer on each of the urinals - it was manufactured by Doulton Co. London.   The toilet itself is not the old one, this is a new toilet but the contractor has been told to retain and reuse as much of whatever that can be used in the process of renovation from the old toilet.  Cultural conservationists should take a leaf from this - if we cannot save everything - at least save as much as possible.       

Then we have the conference room.  This is again a heritage building made of wood.  The interesting aspect of this building is that it is build on steel stilts.  It must have come across the mind of the designer that to avoid the perils of destruction by termites and the tropical weather, steel could be used to overcome this problem.  

Today the building still stand on the strong steel stilts and the interior of the building has been modified to accommodate air-conditioning, but the doors, windows and the exterior design have been retained.  The New Club may seem to be just an insignificant small building in a fast developing town, but there is much to be learnt about restoration of old buildings without causing much destruction to their original forms and character.