Silver-lined revival

With a melting-pot culture and time-warp architecture, it's no wonder tourism is budding in George Town, Penang, writes Leisa Tyler.

On a glorious January afternoon I wander the ruins of Fort Cornwallis in George Town, Penang, trying to make sense of the town's multicultural past. Prized for the deep and sheltered port separating George Town from Butterworth on the Malay Peninsula, in 1786 the British East India Company leased the island from the Sultan of Kedah and proceeded to turn it into one of the empire's most successful colonies.

Legends tell how Captain Francis Light - then superintendent of the company - cleared the jungle for Fort Cornwallis by firing silver coins from his ship's cannons and persuading the eager locals to search for them. The British dug tin mines in the mountains and then gave free passes to any Chinese or Indian who fancied the work. Labourers flocked, as did merchants, missionaries and mercenaries, forming a base for trade and the Opium Wars, which provided George Town with 60 per cent of its income.

Ramshackle but picturesque, with narrow winding lanes flanked by narrow two-storey Chinese shopfronts and stately Victorian office buildings, George Town has one of the most extraordinary collections of pre-war architecture in Asia. Thanks to stringent rent-control laws imposed by the British before they left in 1947 and lifted only in 2000 while much of Asia was replacing their architectural legacies with concrete blocks, Penang lived in a colonial-imposed time warp. And not just architecture but a whole array of crafts such as joss-stick and paper-lantern making, beading and batik still thrive in George Town's higgledy streets.

Awarded a World Heritage listing in 2008 for its contributions to culture and architecture, George Town is now in the midst of a revival. Many of the dilapidated houses, some on the verge of collapsing, are being scrubbed and buffed and converted into boutique hotels, cafes, galleries and private homes. Key among the restorers is Australian Narelle McMurtrie, the owner of Bon Ton Resort on the nearby island of Langkawi that, since opening in 1994, has become one of Malaysia's most popular retreats. She is now lending her rustic style to George Town, converting rows of two-storey Chinese shop fronts into hotel rooms, shops and cafes under the banner of The Straits Collection. There is nothing polished about McMurtrie's style; she prefers to work with the quirks of time, keeping a building's original facade and then liberally furnishing it with Chinese furniture - blood-red closets, antique day beds, pots embellished with calligraphy - and scores of colourful cushions.

"The houses have quirks but to gentrify them would defy the point," McMurtrie says, showing me through four guest rooms on Armenian Street that have a variety of quaint defects, such as sinking floors and crooked beams. "We want the houses to keep their characters - presenting them as they have been lived in, not as some modern-day version."

In the Indian neighbourhood, dubbed Little India and easily identified by the screeching Bollywood tunes and wafting smell of sandalwood, Alpha Utara Gallery and Gallery 29 have turned shop fronts into galleries showcasing a revolving stock of local artists. The Sire is a new restaurant with an attached museum on King Street that has the owner's mother-of-pearl inlay furniture and antiques on display. Suffolk House - the Anglo-Indian residence of Francis Light - has also been converted into a museum. It's a little on the bare side but the downstairs restaurant with a talented young chef, Johnny Fau, and his hearty modern cuisine - such as stuffed chicken fillets with a tomato and star anise sauce - makes the trip worthwhile.

Penang-born Australian Christopher Ong was one of the first to breathe new life into George Town's lodging scene. His hotel, Clove Hall, is a breezy six-room Anglo-Malay bungalow surrounded by gardens, a swimming pool and an extensive collection of Peranakan antiques on the outskirts of George Town. Ong, a former fund manager at BT Financial Group, and his partner Karl Steinberg, stumbled into hospitality after throwing in their jobs and buying a dilapidated Dutch mansion in Galle, Sri Lanka, in 2002. Now called the Galle Fort Hotel, the property won an award for heritage conservation from UNESCO. Hoping to save some of George Town's superb architecture, Ong and Steinberg have another two projects in the works: former horse stables on Muntri Street that will become a 12-room budget hotel and a courtyard clan house on Stewart Lane that is being converted into a 12-room upmarket hotel with a Peranakan cuisine restaurant.

There is a flurry of other projects in the works, including the restoration of the Oasis Hotel, an old mansion with gardens and a private driveway, which was previously used as a backpacker's accommodation.