Spiral staircase

Until I visited the Penang Buddhist Association last Saturday, I had forgotten all about this elegant cast-iron spiral staircase. In fact, there are two within the premises: one in each room that flanked the lobby entrance into the main prayer hall: one spiralling clockwise, the other anti-clockwise.


When I looked at these staircases, only four other similar structures on the island came to my mind: the first is at The Sire Restaurant and Museum in downtown King Street (which used to be Yeap Chor Ee's first house in George Town), the second is at the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in Leith Street, the third is at the rooftop of the Menara UMNO in MacAlister Road and the fourth was at a private dwelling house in Love Lane (which used to be occupied by my late uncle's family).

Spiral staircases are works of art, most probably a throwback to old colonial influences, but to people believing in fengshui, spiral staircases are bad because the spirals mean that you have a sharp, drilling structure that represents stabbing or plunging it into a body to kill or maim. It's particularly bad fengshui when the spiral staircase is located in the middle of a premises. Anyway, that's not my belief; just something that I read quite a long time ago.

I'm sure there are more hidden spiral staircase treasures in the city.