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Georgetown or George
Town is the capital of the state of
Pulau Pinang (Penang) in Malaysia.
Named after Britain's King George III, Georgetown is located on the
north-east corner of Penang Island. The Georgetown is second largest city
in Malaysia by population.
Formerly a municipality and then a city in its own right, since 1976
George Town has been part of the municipality of Penang Island, though the
area formerly governed by the city council is still commonly referred to
as a city, and is also known as Tanjung ("The Cape") in Malay and 乔治市 (Qiáozhì
Shì) in Chinese.
George Town was founded in 1786 by Captain Francis Light, a trader for the
British East India Company, as base for the company in the Malay States.
He obtained the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah and built Fort
Cornwallis on the north-eastern corner of the island. The fort became the
nexus of a growing trading post and the island's population reached 12,000
by 1804.
The town was built on swampy land that had to be cleared of vegetation,
levelled and filled. The original commercial town was laid out between
Light Street, Beach Street (then running close to the seashore), Malabar
Street (subsequently called Chulia Street) and Pitt Street (now called
Masjid Kapitan Keling Street).
The warehouses and godowns extended from Beach Street to the sea. By the
1880s, there were ghauts leading from Beach Street to the wharf and
jetties as Beach Street receded inland due to land reclamation. A new
waterfront was created at Weld Quay, where commercial buildings sprang up.
The historic commercial centre was segmented into the banking and trading
areas related to port activities which included shipping companies, the
import and export trade, and the wholesalers who dominate the southern
section of Beach Street until now.
The Municipal Council of George Town was established in 1857, the first
local authority in Malaya outside Singapore. In 1956, George Town became
the first municipality in the Federation of Malaya to have a fully elected
council, and on 1 January 1957, the municipality became a city by a royal
charter granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, becoming the first (and
until 1972, the only) city in the Federation. Now, the city is
administered by Municipal Council Pulau Pinang or Majlis Perbandaran Pulau
Pinang (MPPP) in Malay.
The inner city of Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been
listed as a World Heritage site since July 2008.
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