Centrepiece: Loh showing his daughter Chloe the old signage of the building in Ipoh. — RONNIE CHIN/The Star
IPOH: For 110 years, a pre-war shophouse along Jalan Bandar Timah here has stood as a silent witness to Ipoh’s changing fortunes, beginning life as a humble shop selling weighing scales before being reborn as a boutique heritage hotel.
The story of the “Ban Loong” building, originally constructed in 1915, is also a reflection of the Loh family, who have lived, worked and preserved it over five generations.
Hotel owner Loh Ban Ho said his great-grandfather first arrived in Malaya from Guangdong province between 1880 and 1890, during a time when many Hakkas left China to escape poverty and hardship.
“He survived a month-long voyage and landed in Malaya with nothing, working first at a gambling den before starting a family in Sungai Siput,” said Loh, the fourth-generation owner, in an interview.
Loh said it was subsequently his grandfather who laid the foundation of the family’s legacy when, at just 23, he bought the property for RM7,000 in 1926 and named it Ban Loong.
His grandfather, who had apprenticed at a weighing scale shop prior to this, started selling weighing scales and later expanded it into a hardware shop.
“The business thrived during the post-World War II rebuilding period, when zinc sheets and construction supplies were in high demand.
“Back then, the shop sold hundreds of zinc sheets daily for roofing as people rebuilt their homes.
“It was just not a business, but it was also a community hub where workers were fed and housed upstairs, and even new arrivals from China could stay temporarily until they found work,” he added.
Loh said the hardware store remained a fixture in Ipoh for decades, expanding into neighbouring lots until the rise of wholesale giants made it difficult to compete.
By 2010, he said the shutters finally came down, but his father, the late Loh Yoon Khoon, an experienced contractor, refused to let the legacy of the building fade away.
“Rather than letting the building fall into ruin, we launched a painstaking three-year restoration that cost about RM1mil,” he said.
Eventually completed in 2017, he said the shophouse became a nine-room boutique hotel while preserving its original bricks, timber beams and facade.
Loh explained that his father was the one who had the courage and skill to take on the challenge.
The hotel has since drawn guests from around the world.
In conjunction with Malaysia Day, Loh and his children repainted the original gold-lettered “Ban Loong” signage on the building’s columns, reviving a piece of its past that had long been covered up.
