Kuala Lumpur - Central Market


Located along Jalan Hang Kasturi, a few minutes away from Petaling Street, Central Market which was built in 1888 was originally a wet market. It has since been classified as a Heritage Site by the Malaysian Heritage Society and it is now a landmark for Malaysian culture and heritage. Central Market is in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and strategically located with public transportation links to all major destinations and hotels while the KL Sentral railway station is only 1 ½ km away. The KL Sentral railway station provides fast and convenient connections to most parts of Kuala Lumpur as well as to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Malaysia is well known for her multi-racial culture where people of different races live in peace and perfect harmony. Central Market has created a corner to display multi ethnicity and zoned the stalls based on the features of each race. The new zone therefore would consist of 3 lanes: namely the Lorong Melayu, Straits Chinese and Lorong India. The purpose of this new zone is to let the visitors have an insight of the cultural difference of the various races in Malaysia.

There’s also a Malacca Jonker street –a street featuring double storey and single storey Baba-Nyonya styled architectural buildings, a Batik Emporium which houses well known designer labels with the best Malaysian made batik items ranging from clothes, shoes, bags to home finishing.

Central Market is a one stop shopping centre for Malaysian products such as handicrafts, art, kebaya, songket, batik and the wide variety of Malaysian cuisine. Efforts to improvise and upgrade facilities in Central Market also include having a wider variety of F & B outlets such as Secret Recipe, Old Town Kopitiam, Kings Confectionary, Famous Amos, Precious Restaurant (Traditional Baba Nyonya Cuisine) , Ginger Restaurant (Traditional Malaysian Thai Cuisine) and many more.

Not to forget, the colorful Malaysian Traditional Cultural and Arts events are now held at the Central Market Outdoor Stage. Central Market celebrates all the Traditional Festival of each race in Malaysia such as Hari Raya Festival, Chinese New Year Festival, Deepavali Festival, Punjabi Festival and lots more. Other than the traditional cultural events, Central Market supports the local contemporary arts such as Art Exhibition, Video Screening, Independent Music Concert and lots more in The Annexe Gallery.

The proposed exercise is to give Central Market, a building with a 120 years history a new identity to attract younger generations to appreciate the need for racial tolerance and the need for racial integration. As we all know, Central Market is a historic landmark of Kuala Lumpur and there can be no other better place to remind the younger generations of the Malaysian Culture that has been so entrenched that people of all races can come together to live in peace and harmony.

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