Birch House, George Town

Birch House, George Town, Penang (25 November 2012)


Birch House (GPS: 5.41292, 100.326) is a heritage building along Dato Kramat Road in George Town, Penang. It was built to serve as the office of the tin smelting plant of Escoy Smelting, known in the late 20th century as Eastern Smelting. The 5.3 hectare site of the tin smelting plant is now developed as Penang Times Square, and Birch House is being retained as the headquarters of the developer, Ivory Properties Group following a RM2.5 million restoration work.

The tin-smelting plant itself was founded by Lee Chin Ho, who started it in 1897. Tin mined in the peninsula from North Malaya all the way to southern Thailand was transported to Penang for smelting. Originally called the Seng Kee Tin-Smelting Works, it was renamed Eastern Smelting Company when it became publicly listed. The tin ingots smelted thereafter carried the acronym "ESCOY" which is a contraction of Eastern Smelting Company.

Birch House was built around 1908. In 1907, the British Resident of Perak from 1905-1909, Sir Ernest Woodford Birch and three other associates bought controlling interest in Eastern Smelting Company. When the office of Eastern Smelting was built in the following year, 1908, it was named Birch House. Birch was a moving force in the development of the tin smelting works in Penang.

The roads around Eastern Smelting were likewise named after tin mining areas from where the ore originated. Hence roads within the vicinity were given names such as Tongkah Road and Trang Road.

Birch House (4 February 2006)


Birch House, Dato Kramat Road, George Town (4 February 2006)


Birch House at night (9 December 2008)

Birch House is on the Map of Jalan Dato Keramat, Penang

Recommended Reading

More information about the Eastern Smelting Company can be found on pages 103-104 of the book Kinta Valley (Perak Academy 2005) by Khoo Salma Nasution & Abdur-Razzaq Lubis.

List of Historic Buildings in Penang and Historic Buildings in Malaysia

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.