OCBC Bank Building, Ipoh

OCBC Bank Building, Ipoh, Perak (19 August, 2006)

The Ipoh OCBC Bank Building (GPS: 4.59683, 101.07677) is a historic building in Ipoh. Located on Jalan Dato Maharajalela (formerly Station Road), it was built in 1907 and was originally known as the Straits Trading Building. The Straits Trading Company was a tin-smelting company when Ipoh was a prosperous tin-mining town. The company was founded by Herman Muhlinghaus in 1889.

The wealth generated by tin mining enabled the Straits Trading Company to build this stately building in the choicest part of Ipoh Town. The three-storey building was designed in the Italian Renaissance style.

Firms related to tin mining also took up office within the building, among them Osborne & Chappel, which proving mining consultancy, and was the first to introduce the hydraulic pump to the Kinta Valley.

With the decline in the tin mining industry, the Straits Trading Building was bought over, and today houses the Ipoh main branch of the Overseas Chinase Banking Corporation.