1880: Selangor Police Force: In 1879, KL had only 2,330 people, 81.8% Chinese. Frank Swettenham described KL in 1872 as "a purely Chinese village, consisting of 2 rows of adobe-built dwellings thatched with palm leaves."
The group shows the early colonial policing model: 2 British officers (seated), with Malay, Indian, and Sikh constables in songkok and turbans. 
1888: HIGH STREET KL—Today it is Jalan Tun H.S.Lee; it was called High Street because it sat above the Klang River flood levels in the early years.
Selangor's first fire service was the police. The Selangor police were formed in 1875. While the first dedicated Fire Brigade was founded in 1883, led by H.F. Bellamy with 15 members. Officially called the Selangor Free Rescue Volunteers/Selangor Fire and Rescue Volunteers.
The first fire station in Tanah Melayu was built on Church Street, Jalan Ampang. It was inaugurated on 20 November 1893 by W.H. Treacher, Resident of Selangor.
1890: The Resident Station
1892: Sultan Street Station
1890: the first generation of KL's railway station. The Resident Station, located opposite the Royal Selangor Club, where Dataran Merdeka is now. Nicknamed Resident Station because it was near the British Resident's house. It was opened in 1886 with the first line in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, to Bukit Kuda (Klang).
The Sultan Street Station was constructed in 1892 at Foch Avenue—now Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, close to present Maybank Tower, Pudu Bus Station, and Plaza Rakyat.
Wikipedia: KL Railway Station.
1891/1894: Bluff Hill (now Bukit Aman KL)—the Selangor Military Police Force HQ. A police station was built there around 1871. It was the main KL District HQ after Captain Charles Henry Syers moved the state police HQ from Klang to KL in 1882. The flat ground in front of it is the police parade ground that later became the Padang, now Dataran Merdeka.
On 25 March 1975, Malaysian IGP Tun Mohammed Hanif Omar renamed the Bluff Hill "Ibu Pejabat PDRM Bukit Aman".
1896: Pudu Jail – located at Jalan Shaw, now Jalan Hang Tuah. Built by the British colonial government between 1891 and 1895 on the site of the former Chinese cemetery. Designed by Charles Edwin Spooner, for 100 years from 1895 to 1996, it was KL's main prison.
It became famous for the world's longest mural – 860 feet by 14 feet – painted in 1984 by inmate Khong Yen Chong using 2,000 litres of paint along the Jalan Pudu wall.
It was closed as a prison in 1996 and used by police and a day-holding facility until 2008. Largely demolished by December 2012 to make way for the Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC). You can still see the gate from the 1896 photo, as the government agreed to keep the main gate and a stretch of the exterior wall after public pressure from conservationists.
1897: the photo of the brand-new Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, just completed in 1897. Built in 1894 by local contractor Towkay Ang Sing, designed by A.C.A. Norman with chief draughtsmen R.A.J. Bidwell and then A.B. Hubback.
In the far background on the hill is the Bluff Hill, which later became Bukit Aman Police HQ.
Photo: G.R. Lambert & Co.
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1900: the Padang & Merdeka Square—this is the photo of the Padang, now Dataran Merdeka, looking toward the Selangor Club (now Royal Selangor Club).
The fountain behind the hawker is the famous Cop's Fountain, built in 1887 as a memorial to Steve Harper, a popular police inspector.
The Selangor Club Padang (field), established by the British in 1884. It was a police parade ground, a cricket field for the British.
1900: Gombak River—the view that gave KL its name. Kuala Lumpur means "muddy estuary/confluence". The man sitting in the foreground is on what is today the edge of the Masjid Jamek area. If you are standing there today, you'd be right next to Masjid Jamek LRT Station.
On the right bank is the back of the Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad; on the left across the building are the atap-roofed houses of the Malay kampung, which would be cleared a few years later in 1909 for the Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad.
1907: Malay Mail Building, Java Street, KL—Java Street was later renamed Mountbatten Road after WW2 and then Jalan Tun Perak in the 70s, named after Bendahara Tun Perak. Today it runs from Dataran Merdeka down past Masjid Jamek LRT to Pudu Road.
The Malay Mail was founded on 14 December 1896 by Alfred Franklin Maintland Price; it is Malaysia's oldest newspaper. It stayed a print paper until 1 December 2018, when it was now fully online.
1907: YMCA Kuala Lumpur—founded in 1905, located at Brickfields, which is today Jalan Padang Belia / Jalan Tun Sambanthan.
1910: Motor buses in KL—the first motor omnibus in KL. Motorbus with 18 passengers, operated by a Chinese organisation. The boy in front is the guard – published in Auto Welt 1911.
25 December 1926: The Great Flood of KL—rain fell almost non-stop for more than 50 hours over Selangor. Rev. D. Fergus Ferguson of St Andrews Presbyterian Church recalled it as "The Great Flood".
Lucky World Amusement Park on Batu Road (now Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) in 1940. It was a big entertainment centre of K.L. in the 1930s–1950s—open-air cinema, jorgé dance floor, cabaret, stage shows, and fun fairs.
There is a lot of confusion online because the Shaw Brothers owned two parks—Lucky World on Batu Road and BB Park in Bukit Bintang. The Bukit Bintang one is better documented:
"Built in the 1930s by a group of businessmen... sold to Shaw Brothers, who then upgraded the place and renamed it BB Park... closed down in the early 1970s to make way for the construction of Sungai Wang Plaza."
Lucky World on Batu Road met the same fate even earlier—closed in the 1950s/60s as KL developed. That whole stretch is now shophoused, with malls like SOGO and heritage shop lots. Like most of the old amusement parks in KL, it was demolished.
1950: Pasar Besar KL (now Central Market)—the original open-air wet market was founded in 1888 to serve the tin-mining town, set up in the time of Kapital Yap Ah Loy.
It stayed a wet market until the 1970s. It was almost demolished for redevelopment, but conservation saved it. In the 1980s it was restored and repurposed into Central Market, or Pasar Seni, the cultural landmark for the batik, handicraft, and street art you know now.
The photo shows a random house, probably the KTM Railway quarters that made Brickfields what it is.
After the great fire and flood of KL in 1881, the British ordered the town rebuilt in brick. Kapitan Yap Ah Loy bought land to make bricks there—that's why it was called Brickfields.
Later the British made Brickfields the main depot for Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM). They bought workers from India/Sri Lanka to work the railway and depot and housed them in quarters around Brickfields.
The wooden house with those louvred windows behind the ladies is exactly those quarter-long rows of timber houses along Jalan Rozario, Jalan Berhala, and Jalan Chan Ah Tong. That's the Brickfields that existed before KL Sentral took over.
Brickfields itself was renamed Jalan Tun Sambanthan in the 1980s, but the old name still sticks.
The scooter is a Lambretta/Vespa Li Series, super popular with government servants then.
The Robinsons Department Store on Mountbatten Road (now Jalan Tun Perak) in 1960. Mounbatten Road originally Java Street in the 1850s, named after Javanese traders. Renamed Mountbatten Road after Lord Mountbatten after WW2. Renamed again to Jalan Tun Perak in the 1970s.
Robinsons itself opened a branch in Kuala Lumpur in 1928. In the 1960s it was the prestige shop in KL.
As a result of the 1973 oil crisis, the KL branch on Jalan Tun Perak closed down in 1975. The building was acquired by United Asian Bank in 1976, and it was demolished to make way for the bank's HQ, now known as Menara UAB.
The Sulaiman Court is the first high-rise, low-cost housing in Malaysia. Built in 1957, just before Merdeka, at the direction of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister. It is named after Almarhum Sultan Alaeddin Sulaiman Shah of Selangor.
At that time, nobody wanted to live in a high-rise. When it opened in February 1958, only 13 families were brave enough to move in from the Setinggan areas. It was considered the start of modern urban living in KL.
Sadly, Sulaiman Court was demolished in 1986 to make way for what we know today as SOGO KL. That's why old-timers always say, "SOGO itu dulu Sulaiman Court."
Across the road from it was the famous Odeon Cinema, and later Campbell & Pertama Complex opened nearby—the whole area was the weekend hangout spot in the 70s.
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1963: The 7th Dawn: a Technicolour drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring William Holden, Capucine, and Tetsuro Tamba. The film set during the Malayan Emergency is based on the 1960 novel "The Durian Tree" by Michael Keon and was filmed on location in Malaysia.
1963: Parliament under construction. The complex was built on top of West Folly Hill. The hill was levelled in 1961 to make way for the project. It was a brainchild of Malaysia's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.
The building was designed by British architect Sir William Ivor Shipley of the Public Works Department.
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1971: Great Flood in KL—the worst flood KL had ever seen at that time. In early January, after continuous heavy monsoon rains, the Klang, Batu, and Gombak rivers swelled. 32 people killed and 180,000 people affected. Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak declared a state of national disaster in West Malaysia. It is the worst flood in the country since 1926.
Pawagam P. Ramlee—opened 3 months after P. Ramlee's passing. He died on 29 May 1973, and the Pawagam was opened in August 1973 as a tribute to him.
Interestingly, the word 'PAWAGAM' itself is a neologism created by P. Ramlee—it stands for "Panggung Wayang Gambar".
It was located at Batu Road (now Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman KL). It was managed by Rumpun Melayu, a company owned by P. Ramlee and H.M. Shah.
Today, it's gone; the lot where it stood is near the SOGO KL, where Sulaiman Court used to be.
1975: The Bukit Nanas Cable Car—most KL people don't even know this existed. A short cable car built in Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve (now KL Forest Eco Park) in the early 1970s. Bukit Nanas was gazetted as a recreational forest on 29 July 1970 to promote ecotourism.
This cable car service was discontinued and dismantled in the early 1980s. The forest was closed in August 2012 to rebuild the cable car; the forest trail has since reopened, but as of today in 2026, the cable car has never been restored.
30 June 1975: Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Bugner—held at Stadium Merdeka, KL. Malaysians still remember this because many skipped school/work to watch. Muhammad Ali also jogged at Selangor Turf Club and visited mosques while he was there. Muhammad Ali was WBA/WBC Heavyweight Champion, while Joe Bugner was European Heavyweight Champion at the time.
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4-5 August 1975: AIA Building siege – 5 heavily armed members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) stormed the 9th floor of the AIA Building at Jalan Ampang, KL, and took 53 hostages. They demanded the release of their 7 imprisoned comrades and threatened to massacre the hostages if refused.
After tense negotiations led by Home Minister Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie and IGP Tan Sri Mohammed Hanif Omar, the JRA agreed to release 5.
Further info: Wikipedia
What you see in the photo above is the Bulatan Chow Kit in 1977—the big green roundabout at the intersection of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Ipoh/Jalan Pahang, and Jalan Raja Muda. It was one of KL's most famous roundabouts; people used to call it "Chow Kit Circus".
In 2026, the roundabout is gone; the exact spot is now the Chow Kit Monorail Station (MR10).
The same area in 2026
29 April 1982: First McDonald's in Malaysia, location 120-120A, Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL.
In December 1980, McDonald's Corporation USA granted Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd the rights to bring McDonald's to Malaysia. The company was established by Tan Sri Dato' Vincent Tan of Berjaya Corporation as a joint venture.
In 1990, it opened its first drive-thru in Malaysia. In 1995, McDonald's Malaysia became the first quick service restaurant in Malaysia to get Halal Certification from JAKIM.
14 April 1986: Datuk Sudirman's legendary free concert on Jalan Chow Kit, considered the biggest street concert in Malaysian history. It was held during the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) conference in KL. The first time a street concert drew 100,000 people and went into the Malaysia Book of Records.
Datuk Sudirman won Asia's No. 1 Performer at the Salem Music Awards at Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1989.
Allahyarham Datuk Sudirman passed away on 22 February 1992 at the age of 37.
Hj Zulheimy Maamor
26 September 2026: 3:53 a.m
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