Revisiting the five-foot-ways of old KL

Reminiscent of the five-foot-ways of old Singapore, the cluttered, coloured, and characterful, kaki-kaki lima of old Kuala Lumpur (KL) are a joy to photograph. The sheltered walkways owe their existence to Stamford Raffles’ influence on Lt. Jackson’s Singapore Town Plan of 1822. The stipulation that “all houses constructed of brick or tile should have a uniform type of front, each having a verandah of a certain depth, open at all times as a continuous and covered passage on each side of the street” saw to a certain degree of uniformity in the shophouse dominated pre-war urban centres of Malaya and Singapore. Where Singapore’s shophouses have to a large extent been spruced-up and modernised and have spaces taken up by new-age businesses, many of those found in the towns and cities of what is now Malaysia are still utilised in a manner that tends to be more organic manner (although that seems to be fast changing).

  

Footway to enlightenment – a five-foot-way along Jalan Tun H S Lee.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Misaligned five-foot-ways along Jalan Ampang.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Melayu.

 

Another five-foot-way along Jalan Melayu.

 

Another five-foot-way along Jalan Melayu.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Five-foot-way along Jalan Petaling.

 

Revisiting KL’s kaki lima

I love wandering around the “kaki lima” or five-foot-ways of old Kuala Lumpur. Full of life and character, they remind me of the lively and colourful five-foot-ways of the Singapore of my younger days.

The corridors are found along the Malaysian capital’s many old shophouses.  Seen also in most towns and cities across Malaysia and also in Singapore, the five-foot-ways (not necessary five feet wide) trace their existence to the Jackson (Singapore) Town Plan of 1822. The plan, which Raffles had a hand in, required that “all houses constructed of brick or tile should have a uniform type of front, each having a verandah of a certain depth, open at all times as a continuous and covered passage on each side of the street”.

More on five-foot-ways:

• Kaki lima
• Coloured corridors
• Corridors of Trade

A five-foot-way along Jalan Sultan.

One along Jalan Hang Lekiu.

One along Jalan Tun Perak.

One along Jalan Tun H. S. Lee.

One along Jalan Petaling, with pavement fortune teller.

Coloured corridors

Conceived by the founder of modern Singapore Sir Stamford Raffles, the five-foot-way was a feature that was stipulated in the Jackson Town Plan of 1822 and is seen today in the shophouses which once dominated the urban landscape of Malaya and Singapore. In Singapore today, over 6000 of these shophouses have been conserved and their five-foot-ways remain colourful spaces through which I often enjoy a walk through. The photographs that follow, are ones from some of the more colourful areas of Singapore in which clusters of shophouses with five-foot-ways, old and new, can be found. More on the five-foot-way and the idea behind them can be found in two of my previous posts, the links to which are at the end of this post.

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Other five-foot-way adventures:

• Corridors of Trade
• Kaki Lima