Panggung Bandaraya occupies the building which was formerly the Old City Hall of Kuala Lumpur. It is located right in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, at the corner of Jalan Tun Perak and Jalan Raja, next door to the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate and Session Court Building. Diagonally across the road (Jalan Raja) is Merdeka Square and the Royal Selangor Club.
Old City Hall, Kuala Lumpur.
Panggung Bandaraya was built in 1896 and completed in 1904. The building originally housed the Kuala Lumpur City Hall. I photographed it when I was documenting Kuala Lumpur heritage buildings for AsiaExplorers. The old City Hall includes an auditorium and municipal offices, each with its own separate entrance. The Sanitary Board, which has authority similar to a town council, also had its office here.
AB Hubback who is responsible for designing most of the heritage buildings in Kuala Lumpur (and several other towns in Malaysia) is the government architect who designed it. Architecturally, it carries through the Mughal style (often incorrectly referred to as the Moorish style) of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. The Old City Hall is distinguished from the other buildings of its era by the pinnacles on its roofline.
Architect AB Hubback embellished the Old City Hall with different versions of Islamic arches and chatris on the roofline. Today the Old City Hall is still used to house various courts of the judicial system.
Today Panggung Bandaraya is gazetted a heritage building under the Antiquities Act. It is just a 5-minute walk away from the Masjid Jamek STAR and PUTRA LRT Stations.
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