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.    

 

The Taiping Dobi Line

There is this area near the Taiping Lake Gardens where the old-fashioned laundry service is still available and it is more commonly known as the dobi line.  There is a flat and the laundry shops are all located on the ground floor.

There is an open space in front of the flat and this is where the washed laundry is being dried in the sun.

What is interesting about this service is the way they hang the items out to dry.  Ropes are used for this and the pieces of clothes or cloth are gripped by two pieces of twisted ropes.  No pegs are used at all.  

The laundry shops lined up the ground floor and there is a good mixture of Indian and Chinese doing this business.  They still do it the way their fathers and grandfathers did it, many decades ago. 

Once the cloth and clothes are ready, the ropes are raised above the ground by supporting poles.

Here we can see an old man pushing a cart full of wet laundry and getting them on the ropes to be dried.

Morning is a time when we can see them coming out to dry the laundry, most of which are washed by hand.

Most of the items come from restaurants and small hotels around the town, but they still get a lot of business from loyal individual clients too.

Then as evening approaches, it is time to collect the dried items back before night fall.   Usually on a hot day like this and with the wind constantly blowing across the open space, the laundry will be dried in the afternoon.. 

 
At present, this place is facing competition from modern laundry shops in town which use washing machines to do the job.  The main problem, however, is not one of changing the mode of operation, but one of the lack of man-power.  The younger generation no longer wants to continue doing this kind of thing, even though they are never short of clients.  Only time can tell if this particular institution of our society will remain or will it disappear in a few generations' time.   Washing machines are certainly not as pretty looking as the scenery we have here and now.