Kedah Road (Jalan Kedah), George Town

Kedah Road, Penang (25 November 2017)

Kedah Road is a minor road in George Town, Penang. It comprises two arms that forms the letter "L" linking Transfer Road to Burmah Road.

As with many of the roads west of Transfer Road, Kedah Road started as one of the village paths of the primarily Malay, Jawi Peranakan and Indian Muslim settlements of 19th century George Town. An offshoot from Kedah Road is Kelantan Road, an even smaller road within the city. Kedah Road still retains many of the pre-war shophouses, their styles a mix of Straits Eclectic with the 19th century style. Unlike elsewhere in the city, the Art Deco style is under-represented here, giving the impression that Kedah Road managed to be frozen in time, leap-frogging the architectural development of the early 20th century. There are however a number of modern-style shophouses, built from the 1970s onwards.

Perhaps the handsomest shophouses along Kedah Road is the row where the two arms of the road meets. The corner house has frontages facing both sides of Keah Road, with a pediment facing the bend. All the houses along this row are in an incredibly well preserved state.

In addition to the Straits Eclectic shophouses, there is a couple of very old townhouses, in the mid 19th-century style. These have simple frontage. The existence of five-foot ways on these townhouses attest to their being designed after bylaws for five-foot ways come into force.