Merdeka Special - Bishop Street

Money still flows through here
Apparently, the Europeans settled in Light Street, while the Eurasians from Kedah and Phuket stayed in Bishop Street and Church Street. And the name Bishop Street? It was named after the Right Reverend Thomas Middleton, the Anglican bishop of Calcutta, who consecrated the neighbouring church of St George in 1819.

In the above picture (taken around 1911), you can see business house Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co which had branches in India, the Straits Settlement (thus, its presence in Penang) and Shanghai. Even then the street had a financial gravitas about it.

Today, Bishop Street remains one of the financial arteries of Penang. Here you will find banks, insurance companies and the offices of accountants.

While the buildings on the left may have lost their beautiful facades (the pre-war colonial-style architecture now all covered with signboards and air-conditioning units) and instead of a row of trishaws, we now have cars, the street has not changed much in its purpose.