Carpenter Street, Kuching

Carpenter Street or Jalan Carpenter is an old street in Kuching. It runs from Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, where the General Post Office is located, to Jalan Ewe Hai to the east, immediately behind the Main Bazaar. Due to its location, it is considered the backstreet to Main Bazaar, which acted as the main thoroughfare fronting the river. In the old days, Carpenter Street was called "attap street" because of the thatch houses on both sides. This was where carpenters set up their workshop, earning the street its name.

A facelift took place in 1884, by courtesy of a big fire that razed all the wooden houses along the street. Charles Brooke, the then White Rajah of Sarawak, issued a decree that henceforth the houses to be rebuilt with non inflammable material. This necessitated the construction of the more permanent brick shophouses along Carpenter Street, a few of them surviving till today. During those days, Carpenter Street was a lower working class neighbourhood filled with opium dens, gambling joints, brothels and other clandestine activities. These were eventually cleaned up by the British.

Today Carpenter Street marks the entrance to the Kuching Chinatown. There is a big Chinese archway here, and the shops stock the daily necessities of the local Chinese in Kuching.

Carpenter Street Location Map

List of Streets in Kuching, Streets in Sarawak and Streets in Malaysia

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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.