Ipoh World

Construction of the building started in 1931 as shown in the picture above left. The design was to be similar to the original idea but the two towers with spires were cut out of the design for reasons unknown. The building when completed housed the Celestial Hotel and Cabaret/Dance Hall occupying the floors above Lam Looking Bazaar. In the early days Lot No 8 in the bazaar was journalist Ahmad Noor Abdul Shukor's "Blue Room". Fook Seng, at Lot No 6 retailed gramophones, keronchong songs and Arabic music. The building was said to be a "stylish Art Deco building which featured sweeping horizontal lines, with Early Modernist stair-wells. The post war photograph of the building (right above) shows the layout of the building, unchanged from when it opened in 1933. However the two huge F&N advertising soft drinks bottles probably came later although Fraser and Neave had been in business in Ipoh since 1913.

The Celestial Cabaret and hotel upstairs was a favourite haunt of European expatriates both before and after the war. During the war, Japanese military officers patronised the cabaret which was also a Japanese casino (gambling farm) during the Occupation and a grenade target during the Malayan Emergency.

However, the cabaret eventually lost its clientele and was transformed into the Movieland Theatre. This was a cinema that specialised in Cantonese Opera movies that were very popular with the older members of Ipoh's Chinese residents. But again, all good things come to an end and the theatre was replaced by the Perak Emporium.

To go to Part 3, click here.

To read more about journalist Ahmad Noor Abdul Shukor, click here.

To read more about the Movieland Theatre in the Lam Looking Building, click here.

To see a view of the Lam Looking Building from the opposite end, click here.

To see some internal views of the building on completion, click here.

To see a view of the rear of the Lam Looking Building, including the staircase tower, click here.