Design-architecture outfit Studio Karya's 'Right To The Padang - Planting Hopes 02' (2017), which reimagines the Padang area in Dataran Merdeka in KL. Photo: Studio Karya

The History and Evolution of the Dataran Merdeka Heritage Area in KL

Shireen Zainudin, 31 August 2023

 

The West Bank

In 1909 the Malay Mail described the sporting club on Jalan Raja overlooking Kuala Lumpur’s Padang as a locale that “provided (for) ... healthy exercise... and well worthy of the conspicuous position it occupies in our town.”

Construction was completed in January 1910 upon which the club was affectionately monikered "The Spotted Dog" after erstwhile president Harry Syers’s pair of dalmatians, often tethered by the entrance as he was “quenching the thirst such exercise engendered”.

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