Fort Cornwallis restoration...and Light

Last month, while attending a workshop on ESG, I picked up a small booklet from one of the exhibitors' counters. North Seafront Initiatives outlined plans to revitalise the northern seafront of the Esplanade, stretching from Fort Cornwallis to just before Green Hall meets the sea. This area had been identified as a priority in the George Town Special Area Plan, gazetted in 2016. According to the booklet, the first inception plan was approved the following year, with funding allocated for key projects such as the conservation of Fort Cornwallis and the strengthening of the Esplanade’s seawall.

For the past eight or nine years, Fort Cornwallis has been cordoned off to allow work to proceed. The fort was once surrounded by a moat, but over time, it fell into disuse and was filled in around 1922. Early restoration efforts focused on reinstating this moat, or at least the western and southern sides of the moat. However, during excavation in February 2018, workers unearthed two cannons buried about four feet deep. Their discovery reignited interest in the fort’s history, though I believe there’s still no definitive consensus on its functional use. The cannons, estimated to be over 200 years old, date back to the reign of King George III (1760–1820)—a period closely tied to Penang’s founding as a British settlement in 1786. Following this, nine cannonballs were also uncovered in the same area.

The North Seafront conservation effort has also involved strengthening the seawall, sprucing up the Koh Seang Tat fountain garden and enhancing the promenade by the sea. The removal of the metal fence around the Cenotaph has made the structure look far grander and more imposing. Meanwhile, on the southern side of Fort Cornwallis, the Light Street sidewalk has been significantly improved.

One piece of news I’m especially excited about is the proposed relocation of the Francis Light statue—again! But rather than being moved to some obscure spot, conservation efforts will see it restored to its original position outside the fort, facing the State Assembly building. This is particularly thrilling for me because, purely by coincidence, I had written about the statue’s original location back in August last year—long before I even knew of this proposal. Now that it may happen, I can’t wait to see it come to fruition!

I also hope that during the relocation process, conservationists will restore the statue’s lost sword. The original statue depicted Light with a sword at his side, and popular belief suggests it was lost during the Japanese Occupation. When the Japanese military invaded Malaya during the Second World War, the statue was removed and hidden away, and the accepted story is that the sword went missing in the process, never to be found. However, I’ve always questioned this version of events. I’ve seen photographs of the statue—complete with a sword—when it was positioned inside the Supreme Court premises after the war. Whether that sword was the original or a replica is irrelevant; the point is, the statue still had a sword after the war. My belief is that it only disappeared when the statue was relegated to a dimly lit corner of the Penang Museum in the late 1960s. The Francis Light statue deserves to have its sword again, and I hope one will be reinstated when it is finally relocated to Light Street in the foreseeable future.

#francislight #fortcornwallis