Penang Heritage: George Town's Campbell Street wet market

This is the Campbell Street wet market. It is probably the oldest existing market in George Town, built around 1900 or so at a then princely cost of $21,000. It sits at the junction of Carnarvon Street, Buckingham Street and Campbell Street, next to a police station and diagonally across from the wakaf land belonging to the Kapitan Kling mosque.


This is the interior of the market's main building that houses the fish and vegetable sections. The building itself has ornate cast iron columns and brackets reminiscent of late Victorian markets but I hadn't the time to explore the building properly as my attention was soon diverted to the poultry section at a side building.


The main building was empty but at least here, there was still some activity going on in the late afternoon. Time was about 5pm. People - obviously the poultry sellers - relaxing and bumming around with cigarettes in their mouths.


You get to see these caged chicken and geese. I wonder how well they are fed. Looked scrawny to me. Obviously, after market hours, nobody bothers much with them.


We shouldn't forget these bold friends running along the ground and into the drains. I would estimate that from tip to tip, that, is, from the nose to the tail, the critter is probably 12 to 13 inches long. Enough to scare the blardy hell out of me!