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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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.

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