221 & 223 Beach Street

221 & 223 Beach Street (GPS: 5.41365, 100.3377) is an ensemble of two double-storey shophouses at the junction of Beach Street with Acheen Street Ghaut, in George Town, Penang. Although they cannot be considered new today, they are considerably newer than the other buildings in the neighbourhood.

221 & 223 Beach Street are two shophouses built in the Modern style (15 September 2012)


221 & 223 Beach Street were built in the 1960s. You can see from their architectural style that they are different from the other buildings in the area. These two were designed in the Modern architecture style, with plain curve lines instead of any floral embellishments.

223 Beach Street used to house Federal Coffee Shop, which is famous for its goo bak koay teow. This was where I got to eat my first goo bak koay teow as a small boy. Today the coffee shop is no longer operating, and I am told that that goo bak koay teow stall has reincarnated itself as the stall at Kedai Kopi Lam Ah, at the junction of Beach Street and Chulia Street. The young lady manning that stall is probably a relative of the operator at Federal Coffee Shop.

Location of 221 & 223 Beach Street on the map