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History Of Ipoh Motors Building - (Formally The Cycle And Carriage Company Limited)
This building was originally built as the Ipoh premises of the Cycle & Carriage Co. Ltd. which was established by the Chua brothers in 1899 in Kuala Lumpur as Federal Stores, a trader in nutmegs and other sundries. It changed its name to Cycle & Carriage within the same year (on 15th June), selling everything from soap to writing paper, simple machine parts and bicycles. Motorcycles and cars followed.
The company moved its head office to Singapore in 1926. One of the earliest motor vehicle companies in Ipoh, they specialised in Mercedes Benz motorcars, which were very popular with the tin mining Towkays before the war. Indeed it is said that Ipoh had more Mercedes than any other city in South East Asia at that time. However with the onset of the worldwide slump of the 1930’s and the consequent severe drop in tin prices, sales of Mercedes reduced to a level where it was no longer profitable to maintain an Ipoh branch. Consequently the premises were closed in 1930. Meanwhile, before the war Borneo Motors opened a dealership in an adjacent building.
Sonetime after the war the original premises became Ipoh Motors as agents of Cycle and Carriage. Prior to that they had been on Silibin Road. At this location, they were the local agent for a number of makes, including Fiat and Renault. After the war, as Italy and France lay in ruins and the Americans were ascendant, Fargo, Willys, and other American makes were more available for a while.
Taking a close look at the photograph, on the facade to the main entrance, below ‘Ipoh Motors Ltd’, there are two makes, Plymouth and Hudson who merged with another company to become AMC in 1954. Beside Hudson, there’s Willys. In this instance referring to their passenger cars not the Jeep. Due to failing fortunes, Willys changed hands in 1953.
The company eventually moved to an alternative site leaving the building empty as the photograph shows. However on the far end of a second building in 1953 there was still a Borneo Motors logo on the wall thus leading to some confusion as to accurate dates and tenancies.
Mano says:
Can’t make out the names to the left of the facade but it’s interesting to note the American representation here with their Plymouth, Hudson and Willys, which is the now famous Jeep. As for the Brits’, I recall seeing the Singer Rapier around till the late sixties. Later on it was sometimes in the form of the Hillman Imp rebadged as Singer. Didn’t know much about Trojan back then. As for the BSA motorcycle, there probably are a few around. Those were the days when one could count the number of parts of a motorcycle not made from metal in one hand!
As for the stall. Without even the sight of a plate or a bowl, it is next to impossible to tell what was being sold. To me, it seems more like the stall owner, for some reason, is doing a ‘runner’. That’s him on the bicycle in the foreground!:)
Igmatius Chew tells us:
Between “Fargo Truck” and “Trojan S S” is a sign showing a horse with wings, Pegasus. I just make out the word as Mobilegas. That was the US oil company selling petrol. Gas is the short form for gasoline, which is petrol here. It was taken over by Esso.
Ipoh Remembered adds:
In the old days Trojan used to make cars as well as lorries (in partnership with Leyland). The cars were sturdy and ran inexpensively and were therefore often used in Malaya as taxis. The Singapore distributor’s Ipoh agent was Wing Lee (long gone now, I am sure).
Speaking of the distributor: At some point two mechanics working for the company — the Straits Motor Garage — decided to make (or were sent on) a trip in a Trojan car: their stated goal was to drive from Singapore to Calais and then make their way to London!
On the way, they even stopped in Ipoh.
But did they make it all the way to London? Not exactly as planned: once they got to the Siamese (now Thai) border, the roads, even if mapped, were frequently bad or non-existent. They considered taking their car apart and carrying it in pieces overland through Siam to Burma but even that was not possible! — so they crossed the Indian Ocean on a ship before driving more than two thousand miles across northern India.
Their trip across the Sind desert was the first one ever made by a car, and when a sand-storm erased the camel tracks they were following, it was a pure miracle that they ever reached Karachi. From there, they made it to Constantinople (now Istanbul), a year after leaving Singapore! And after that, well, it was plain sailing, so to speak: two months later they were in England!
Yes, it was impressive, I’ll say, especially if we remember that their car ran on solid tyres, their axles broke several times, and they spoke few of the languages they encountered on the way!
Anyway, enough about that. You’re right that by the time the photograph was taken, Trojan was making mostly vans and small lorries. As far as I know there was never any association with Ford. And not long after the photograph was taken, the company more or less ceased to exist.
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By the way, ipohWorld, when the photograph was taken, the right side of the building was occupied by tenant Ipoh Motors; and the left side was occupied by another tenant, a transportation company. Ipoh Motors, however, was not only a tenant: it was also the local agent for the landlord, Cycle & Carriage.
So, not long after the photograph was taken, when Ipoh Motors wanted more space for its show-room, Cycle & Carriage filed a lawsuit in order to evict its other tenant! (And yes, the lawsuit was successful.)
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Final detail: you mentioned the petrol pump, but notice also the winged horse on the hanging shield. The brand is “Mobilgas” and the design was a Socony-Vacuum trade-mark used until the mid-’50s.
Ipoh Remembered also adds:
About the car that made it from Singapore through Ipoh to London: if you’d like to see the same model being put through its paces, click here
Notice the solid-rubber tyres.
Ipoh Remember considers Mercedes:
In existence since 1899 and in Ipoh since 1906, only in the late '20s did Cycle & Carriage begin dealing with Mercedes cars. Partly this was because, in the early years Mercedes cars were practically hand-made and there were very few of them to sell. Mass-production began in Germany in the mid-'20s and only after that were firms like Cycle & Carriage involved in distribution.
Meanwhile, a different firm began importing Mercedes lorries, as well as other German cars, and their agent in Ipoh was … Ipoh Motors! (Albeit not yet on Brewster Road.)
Only later did Ipoh Motors develop its long and profitable relationship with Cycle & Carriage.
And for that matter, it was really only years later, in the '50s, that Cycle & Carriage, now having acquired its sole agency from Mercedes, really became identified with the brand in Malaya.