Marshland buried with the times

LOOKING at the heavy flow of traffic along Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong and Carnarvon Street today, not many would recall it was once a huge swamp area with a canal where boats and junks could sail in.

Carnarvon Street — the street of undertakers, coffin-makers, joss stick shops and school textbook shops — has long been known to older Penangites as lam chan ngah, which means swampy rice fields, in the early days of Penang.