83000 batu pahat, johor

Larry who previously sent some old photos of Batu Pahat sent me this recently too.

Anyone knows where is this? The only info give is that it was taken in the mid 70s. Larry notes the contrast between the two houses.

If you have photos of the past you want to contribute, send them to me.

What happens to old Cinemas? Well, they become $1 shops. Well, here are two old cinemas, incidentally, both are One Stop Superstore too! I missed out taking the photo of the other one!

This is the former Rex Cinema at Jalan Rahmat.

You can still hints that it was Rex. I guess it was wise of them to preserve them and not plaster it over with something else.

From the front. You can see the words Shaw’s Building on it.

View from the middle of Jalan Rahmat. (Things journalist wannabe will do to take photos. haha…)

This is a closer view, for those who likes details.

The other old cinema is Odeon at Jalan Jenang. Chatted on the phone with my parents, and they said, it was previously known as “Thye Kuan Guan”. (or translated loosely as Thye Kuan Garden, I hope I am right.)

Anyone of you old enough to have watched the first movie shown at Odean? I heard it was “Can-Can”. I have no idea what is “Can-Can”, so I looked it up. It was a musical show staring Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier. OK… it’s way… before my time!

Walking along Jalan Rugayah, you can see this distinctly different building that is one of the few left in Batu Pahat. It’s some old government quarters.

Just beside the quarters, you will see a huge billboard covering up an old dilapidated building. Sis and I decided to find out more, and we pretended to be tourist. We went to the few shops opposite the ‘billboard building’ to ask the old uncles and aunties about the history.

They were already in their 60s or 70s and said they are too young to know the whole history. They have seen it all the time, they forgot it is there. haha… They said something about it being a place where rice was distributed or something.

Then after “he ping” (they were talking in a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien, He Ping = Merdeka) It was the ‘Bomba’ and then it was also the ‘Jabatan Telekom’. They said it was in a worse state and it is cleaner nowadays.

Well, current and previous residents of BP, if you or your relatives know more, let’s update or correct each other about the story of this place.

Some close up shots of the arches on top of the building. You can see this part it totally wrapped up by the roots of the trees.

An even more zoom in, you can see interesting words. What can you make out of this?

On another arch, you can see the word Garage on it.

It was a pleasant surprise that these words came out, while I was taking the photos, I did not really see these words until I got home and view it on the PC.

Thanks to Mr Chew Yang Hua, who has emailed me some old photos of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCC), Batu Pahat taken in the 1950s. The following photos were taken by Yang Hua’s father.

In the insert is the photo of Mr Chew Kee, who built the CCC in the 1930s. I think it was completed in 1931, by looking at the current building photo that has a 1931 on it. (Skip to the current building photo here)

Playing spot the difference, I see that the flag pole has been removed from the present building.

Pic 1: The building that Chee Kee built.

Yang Hua also attached this photo in his email. Yang Hua’s father, Chew Yan Han is standing 2nd to the right.
If you happened to know people in this photo, maybe you are some long lost relative or family friends of Chew Yang Hua!

Pic 2: Chee Kee’s Family Photo, taken before the II World War in the 30s.

Thanks again to Mr Chew for his photo contribution!

Continuation from yesterday’s post.

Photo 7: Parked Cars

Photo 8: Roundabout

Photo 9: Shops

Photo 10: Temple

Photo 11: Temple

Photo 12: Pedestrian walking on the streets