EXHIBITION

Street Fragments: Jalan Gurdwara traces the layered histories of Jalan Gurdwara 风车路, formerly known as Brick Kiln Road, through archival research, published sources, oral history interviews, neighbourhood observation, and conversations with stakeholders. Moving between personal experience and collective memory, the project explores how this one-kilometre street has been shaped by labour, migration, technological innovation, economic change, urban planning, public policy, and the rhythms of everyday life.

Presented through a chronological timeline, mapped landmarks, contemporary institutions, and industrial legacies, the exhibition portrays Jalan Gurdwara and its surrounding neighbourhood — particularly the Seven Streets Precinct, which underwent significant transformation following the abolition of the Rent Control Act in the late 1990s and subsequent gentrification — as both a repository of memory and a living neighbourhood, where change brings renewal as well as displacement and loss.

Its narratives unfold through places such as Hin Bus Depot, Wadda Gurdwara Sahib, GAMA Supermarket & Departmental Store, the veterinary clinic, SK Tan Sri P. Ramlee, and the understated Municipal Council buildings that supported the city’s logistical networks. The area’s industrial heritage is further explored through sites including the now-disappeared Eastern Smelting Plant and Khie Heng Bee Rice & Oil Mills, whose innovations contributed to mechanised agricultural processing in northern Malaya during the late 19th century.

The exhibition also examines the area’s modest residential architecture, showing how residents inhabited and adapted these spaces while offering glimpses into the character of a traditional kopitiam that has since closed. It highlights how monumental structures and everyday spaces have shaped the street’s evolving identity.

We hope this exhibition encourages visitors to look beyond George Town’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, engage with this often-overlooked part of Penang, and recognise its significance within the island’s social, industrial, and urban history.