Pepper Estate

Pepper Estate, Penang (9 June 2012)


Pepper Estate (GPS: 5.45459, 100.2994) is a low-income neighbourhood in the Vale of Tempe in Tanjong Bungah, Penang. The main road in Pepper Estate is the Pepper Estate Road. From this main trunk, a number of side roads branches out on both sides. These are numbered such as Road 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. As with Hong Seng Estate in neighbouring Mount Erskine, the houses here hug the hilly terrain.

Access to Pepper Estate is via the bridge across Sungai Balik Batu, a small stream that cascades down the hill slope towards Fettes Park. A short distance from it is Medan Fettes, the westernmost road in Fettes Park.

A person whose wife's family has been living in Pepper Estate for a long time told me that Pepper Estate was the property of Lim Eow Thoon (Deceased) Estate up until 2012. The property covers an area that includes land on the other side of Sungai Balik Batu.

In the 1960s, the trustees of the land decided to allow the then orchard land to be rented out to those who could not afford to buy freehold land to build their homes. The land was thus leased from the Lim Eow Thoon Estate by the individual familites. Each family bought the right to a small plot of land and built their respective houses on it. They each paid the Lim Estate a ground rent.

This was the case with this person's wife's family, when the family built their home in Pepper Estate in 1970. The family with five children then moved in. At that time, the person's wife was a ten-year-old girl. Through this ground rental arrangement, some 300 houses of varying shapes and sizes sprouted on the land called Pepper Estate. Their expectation was that they would be able to live there perpetually.

On 23 May, 2012, the land of the Lim Eow Thoon Estate was purchased by Beverley Heights Properties. This has given the residents of the area much concern, and they fear being evicted from their homes. The house owners at Pepper Estate are currently in negotiation with the developer to replace their homes with apartments on the land.

What is this thingy (above picture)? It is beside the Pepper Estate Road. Could it be the Guillemard Reservoir Control Room? There is a PBA thiny in front that seems to indicate so. If you have more details about it, do let me know.

Hong Seng Estate is on the Map of Mount Erskine, Penang

Pepper Estate Road, Penang (9 June 2012)


Guillemard Sluice Control Room (22 August 2015)