8 Heeren Street Heritage Centre, Malacca

8 Heeren Street (1 May, 2009)


8 Heeren Street Heritage Centre (GPS: 2.19478, 102.24759) is a restored Dutch-period house in Malacca. It is the fruit of a restoration and conservation project carried out by Badan Warisan Malaysia, a non-governmental organisation working to preserve Malaysian heritage buildings. Located on Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, formerly Heeren Street, it represents an excellent case study of how a two-storey building from the mid-late 18th century can be brought back to its original appearance.

No. 8, Heeren Street is a typical early shophouse and residential house of Malacca, somewhere between the mid 17th to the late 19th century. It is used today as a heritage centre to provide visitors a glimpse into Malacca's past. Though it is one of the oldest buildings on Heeren Street, it is typical of that period. Malacca is unique in this aspect, as no other town in Malaysia has shophouses that go back to such as early period. Also, no other town has a preceding Portuguese style to develop from.

8 Heeren Street, Malacca (9 July, 2005)


View of the air-well at 8 Heeren Street, Malacca (9 July, 2005)

Interpretive Boards on 8 Heeren Street

Visitors to the 8 Heeren Street Heritage Centre can go through the series of interpretive board providing details about the property.

Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Interpretive board at 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)

Urban morphology of Malacca

8 Heeren Street represents a snapshot of the urban morphology of Malacca. It offers a glimpse into the evolving streetscape of the town, with the shophouse an important element of the whole. Through 8 Heeren Street, we see how more permanent material was introduced for urban dwellings in Malacca, to replace less durable material such as timber and thatch, where were the usual building material of earlier structures. 8 Heeren Street also demonstrates how a building conforms to planning regulations that were in place during the Dutch administration, which dictated the type of material to be used. Building lines, foundations, party walls, fenestrations and even the size of the bricks all have to follow strictly controlled standards.

The early shophouses served not only as shop, but also home, stable and animal yard, all at the same time. As would be expected, the front portion of the building serves as shop, with living quarters tucked away in the middle, and the rear portion for animal husbandry. Like a snapshot, 8 Heeren Street therefore enables visitors to glimpse into the social environment of its period. The conservation of 8 Heeren Street is an example of the effort taken to stem the demise and loss of such historical structures in Malacca's heritage.

Opening Hours
11:00am to 4:00pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Admission free.

The middle and rear portions of 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


The staircase going up to the first floor of 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


The upstairs landing of 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)


Participants from the AsiaExplorers travel group visiting 8 Heeren Street (9 July, 2005)

8 Heeren Street on Google Street View

8 Heeren Street (Aug 2018)

8 Heeren Street is on the Map of Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Malacca

8 Heeren Street is on the Map of Malacca

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About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.