From abandoned mistress to town beauty

IPOH (July 22): Twenty years ago, no one gave the old shop houses in Ipoh’s Concubine Lane a second glance. The two dozen buildings that were more than a 100 years old were dismissed as all used up and ready to collapse  – which some did do.

From the ashes, however, have risen new buildings that are worth 10 times more.

“A piece of property in Concubine Lane is estimated to be worth about RM1 million currently,” said Datuk Lee Heng, a well-known real estate agent and housing developer.

“Until about five years ago, they were worth only between RM350,000 and RM500,000, depending on the condition,” Lee, who owns two shop houses himself, added.

“There seems to have been a sudden shift of feng shui in this sector of the old town.

“The luck has made a full circle, from the New Town to Greentown and then to Ipoh Garden South and back.”

Lee said there was now great enthusiasm to make Concubine Lane a part of the city’s heritage walk which stretched from the J.W.W. Birch memorial clock tower to the banks of Sungei Kinta.

A number of the old buildings in Concubine Lane have been redeveloped and given a new facade. Others are works in progress.

Those already open for business are eateries specialising in traditional delicacies, handicraft and souvenir shops, and home-stays, which attract a good number of visitors daily.

“Monthly rental for the premises is about RM3,000 to RM5,000,” said Lee.

The revival of these premises has given new life to the old part of town, which had looked forlorn and deserted after office hours in the past.

It could even grow to be to Ipoh what Jonker Street is to Malacca.

It bodes well for the plan to turn Ipoh into a “Tin Ore Heritage City.”

Under the Ipoh City Council’s structural plan for 2020, Jalan Bijih Timah adjoining Concubine Lane is to be turned into a heritage pedestrian mall. Plans are being drawn up for a pedestrian bridge with a miniature model of a tin dredge over Sungei Kinta, linking to the new town sector.