Living in Seang Tek Road

Seang Tek Road and the surrounds were my playground for the first 26 years of my life. After almost 40 years later, why does it still feel like only yesterday that my family moved away from this part of George Town? I was born in this neighbourhood, at a nearby maternity home in Hundred Years Lane (this is quite an absurd translation of the road's actual name, Lorong Seratus Tahun, into the English language and besides which, I can't recognise the building now even if it still stands), and this neighbourhood was my haunt well into my adult life. Even when I studied in Petaling Jaya, I would head back to the familiar comforts of my home in Seang Tek Road at the slightest opportunity, be it a long holiday or only a short stay.

My attachment is still there. It is so obvious to see that I have an affinity for this corner townhouse at Number 10, Seang Tek Road which I grew up in. It still stands today, although it is a far cry from the warmth and homeliness of its distant past. The owners have renovated it and the tenants have turned it to commercial use. Only last month, I returned to this road just to look at the building again....

Last week, I decided to recreate the interior of my old home on paper. Drawing the plan to the best of my memories of the house, this is the best I can do, however. I tried drawing to scale but unfortunately, the dimensions are an approximation only. However, I am confident that I haven't deviated much from reality.

The townhouse, like all pre-war buildings was long and narrow. The internal width of the house was a mere 12 to 13 feet. But it stretched way back, possibly some 70 feet. Like many typical pre-war Straits townhouses on the island, it would feature a five-foot way, a main hall, a staircase, a sitting room, a dining area, an air well, a kitchen, a bathroom, a rear courtyard and a toilet located right at the very end.

Upstairs, the main bedroom would look over into the street below and there would be a small spy hole in the floor to look at anyone calling at the house, if we were all upstairs. There was also a second bedroom and then a terrace at the back. No bathroom though, so all ablutions will have to be performed downstairs.

Let me put the numbers and alphabets into the proper perspective.

On the ground floor, A was the five-foot way paved with terracotta tiles. A complete misnomer in this case, because the five-foot way measured 7½ feet from the granite edge to the front wall. In fact, almost the whole house was laid with these tiles. B was the main hall, C was the sitting room, D was the open dining area, E was the kitchen, F1 was the granite-paved floor of for the air well which was set about eight inches lower than the floor of the dining area. A shallow drain ran along the edge of the dining area and kitchen, took a left turn to go around the perimeter of the rear courtyard and the water emptied itself into the large drain outside the house. F2 was the walled and cemented rear courtyard.

Going on to the numbers, there were two main windows (1a) at the front of the house. It was very normal for the windows to sport vertical metal bars for security. The two halves of each window opened inwards. Above the windows were air vents. The main wooden door (2a) featured some vertical slits and simple carvings, and it was secured by a latch lock. During the day time, the latch lock would not be engaged and all that prevented the door from opening out was a simple cabin hook. Behind this main door was a massive wooden door (3) which swung inwards and would be left open from mornings till night-time. When the two halves of the door were closed, they were secured by a pair of thick wooden latches. 

we placed a rectangular table (4a) arranged squarely in the middle of the main hall, surrounded by a chair on each side. A small table (5) on the right wall held a Pye radiogram. I could spend hours listening to the radio, especially to the RAAF radio station broadcasting on 1445kHz from Butterworth. The space between it and the window was for parking a bicycle. Along the other wall, my father would park his Honda C50 motorcycle. Later when I owned my own Honda CB100 motorcycle, I would park it beside the bicycle.

The family worshipped Kuan Imm and a painted picture of the deity was placed at the main altar, a cupboard (6) which faced outwards towards the main door. A wooden cabinet (7) filled with a grand-uncle's books and magazines sat right next to it and on it was placed the memorial tablet of my maternal great-grandparents. Also having pride of place on the right and left walls of the main hall were huge portraits of the great-grandparents and other senior relatives. 

Separating the main hall from the interior of the building was a wooden latticed partition (8) which rose from the floor to the ceiling, broken only by two open entrances. On the other side of the partition was a corridor that led to a storeroom beneath the staircase (9). The staircase came with simple balusters supporting the handrails. All were carved from wood and very darkly shellacked. It had a landing zone halfway up and at this point, the direction of the staircase turned 360^o before continuing to the top floor. From the upper half of the staircase, it was possible to peer through the lattice work of the partition and look down into the main hall. In the sitting room was a long table or t'ng toke with detachable rounded ends (10) which served as my grandmother's bed at night. The two hemispherical halves could be combined together to make a round table. All that remains today in my possession is the middle portion. The two other pieces were claimed by one of my grandmother's siblings when the house was taken back by the landlord. There was also a small cupboard (11) for my books, a sideboard (12) and a single bed (13) for my grandfather. A window (1b) beside this bed opened out into the air well yard.

From the sitting room, a door (2b) opened out to the dining area. Against the wall was a small table (14) that held a small wooden cabinet that my grandmother had nailed together herself and which I'm still using today, a dining table (4b) for six people and the first of two food cabinet or chai too (11b). Beyond the dining area was the airy kitchen with a traditional Chinese stove (15)  right smack in the middle. The other chai too was located here too. A cemented brick water-through (16) and bathroom (17) faced the kitchen. I remember that we reared small fishes in the water-through to get rid of unwanted mosquito larvae. The unnumbered criss-cross pattern next to the bathroom was a wiremesh netting stretched out to become the drying area for washed crockery.

The walled courtyard at the back of the house had multiple uses. First, this was the area to dry our washed clothes. Second, we had three chicken coops (18) lining one side of the wall. At first, there were a few chicken but when I was older, I don't remember my family rearing anymore and the coops were largely left empty. Third, maybe they were used for keeping the unused flower pots because outside the coops, the area was used to grow all sorts of potted plants. Lots of them, actually. The squat toilet (19) was in the corner at the far end of the house and could only be accessed by a flight of three steps. It was a lucky thing that this house no longer used the bucket system and there was an efficient flush system in use. There was a small charcoal hut (20) at the other corner. A metal door (2c) opened out into a wide back lane which led to Perlis Road. 

By comparison, the top floor was very spartan. It was basically the sleeping quarters for the family: G was the main bedroom at the front of the house, while H was the second bedroom. The floorboard was of timber planks laid out lengthwise and resting on huge timber beams that ran across the house. The rooms were partitioned off with wooden planks to a height of seven or eight feet and above were latticed vents for air flow.

The three windows (23) of the main bedroom were equipped with wooden louvred shutters and they opened out into Seang Tek Road. Looking out directly from them, I could see the hills of Paya Terubong.  The interior was spacious. Even with the double bed, mirrored side table, cupboard, a standing clothes hanger and my baby cot moved in, there was still a lot of space left. The bedroom door (2d) led to a long corridor. On the right was a small storeroom (25) and then the top end of the staircase, immediately after which was the door (2e) into the second bedroom. A window (1c) looked out into the air well space. There were clothes cupboards arranged along the wall as well as another book cupboard for me. I certainly had a wealth of books around me!

A wooden door (2f) led to the open terrace (J) at the back. It looked over the void area (K) on the ground floor - from the air well to the rear courtyard - and the roofs of the kitchen, bathroom, toilet and charcoal hut. On the back ledge were balanced three or four pots of plants. There was also a pipe bringing running water to the top floor but there was no bathroom here. A drainpipe at the far corner directed the flow of rain and waste water to the shallow drain on the ground floor. 

We lived in this house until 1980 when the landlord took it back. We were given some monetary compensation for the eviction and we went on to stay in Lorong Zoo Tiga. That was before we made an eventual big move to the Taman Siakap area of Seberang Jaya on the mainland in 1983.