The Queen Victoria Memorial Clocktower at King Edward's Place is one of the most recognizable icons of Penang Island. It doesn't matter that there is more than one clock tower in Penang - it is such an icon in Penang that when you say The Clocktower, Penang people know which one. The other famous clock tower of Penang is simply referred to as, well, The Other Clocktower. This Clocktower was built to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria by one of those distinguished Chinese millionaires eager to flaunt their wealth in the eyes of their British administrators.
The Victoria Memorial Clocktower at King Edward Place, Penang, was built by local Penang millionaire Cheah Chen Eok in 1897 to commemorate the sixtieth year of the Queen's reign. The tower was sixty feet tall, with each foot for each year of the Queen's reign. Unfortunately, she never visited Penang, nor did she ever live long enough to see her clocktower completed. By the time it was completed in 1902, the Queen had died.
Do you realise that the clocktower leans to one side? That's the legacy of all the bombs dropped around it during the Second World War that destroyed the Government Building nearby. In my photographs, I try to make it look as if it is straight.
In addition to the clocktower, the other legacy of Cheah Chen Eok is the Moon Gate on the way to the Penang Botanical Gardens.
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