Beach Street, George Town

Part of the city's central business district, it is also one of the oldest streets in Penang, having been created soon after the founding of the state by Captain Francis Light in 1786.

[1] The concentration of Malaysian and international banks around Beach Street has made George Town the financial hub within northern Malaysia.

[1] Today, the shoreline has been shifted further east due to the land reclamation in the late 19th century; Weld Quay has since become the eastern coastal road in George Town.

[3] At the newly reclaimed eastern side of Beach Street, the Straits Settlements authorities built the U-shaped Government Offices between 1884 and 1909.

The building was mostly destroyed during World War II; the sole surviving portion of the Government Offices now houses the Penang Islamic Department.

Plan of Beach Street and side streets, as at December 2006
Beach Street in the 1910s
Beach Street in the 1910s. Pictured is the old HSBC building in the foreground (destroyed in World War II ), and the then- Netherlands Trading Society building in the background, currently leased by the Bank of China .
Penang Islamic Department Building
Present-day HSBC Bank Building
The Standard Chartered Bank building at 2 Beach Street
Bank of China Building
OCBC Building