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The Mercantile Bank Building, Ipoh
This photograph shows the premises of the Mercantile Bank of India at 15-19 Station Road. (The building was known initially as the Shaik Adam Building but soon became identified with its "anchor tenant.")
The Mercantile Bank had arrived in Ipoh in 1928 and first opened for business at 11-13 Station. At the time, there were two other banks on the street: the Chartered Bank in its own new building at 21-27 Station and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank renting space in the Straits Trading Company Building at 2 Station.
In 1930, correctly assessing demand for more "prestige" office space on Station Road, the estate of local entrepreneur Shaik Adam decided to tear down its old buildings at 15-19 Station and to build a modern structure there instead. The Singapore-based architectural firm of Keys & Dowdeswell was hired: a few years earlier, it had opened an Ipoh office on Belfield Street; and, fatefully, in 1930, the office was joined by young Danish architect Berthel Michael Iversen.
The building was designed in the dominant Art Deco style and the engineering firm Brossard Mopin, which had worked with Keys & Dowdeswell before, was hired to erect it. It was completed in 1931 and the Mercantile Bank moved in from next door to occupy the ground floor. Upstairs there were other tenants, including the law firm of Maxwell & Kenion as well as the building's architects, Messrs. Keys & Dowdeswell, who moved in from Belfield Street.
At a formal ceremony, British Resident Bertie Elles declared the building open. Among the assembled guests were Chetiappa Chettiar, the executor of Shaik Adam's estate; the architects Percy Keys, Frank Dowdeswell, Geoffrey Boutcher, and Berthel Iversen; and various dignitaries including Arthur Kenion; Bunny Byers; and Leong Sin Nam. Also present was Shaik Adam's son.
Two months later, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank moved out of Station Road and in to its own new premises in Belfield Street, where it remains today in 2018.
We thank Ipoh Remembered for the above details.
To read more about Berthel Michael Iversen, click here
To read more about the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, click here.
To read more about the Chartered Bank, click here.
To read more about The Straits Trading Company, click here.
To read more about the book ‘Kinta Valley’, click here.