The Royal Ipoh Club is a recreational club in the middle of Ipoh, Perak. The records of when it was established was lost during the Japanese Occupation, but it is believed that the Royal Ipoh Club was founded earlier than 1895. It was this premier institution that gave the name to one of the main roads in Ipoh, Club Road (which nowadays is known as Jalan Panglima Bukit Gantang Wahab, and formerly Jalan Kelab).
Royal Ipoh Club faces the Ipoh Padang.
When it was first established, the Royal Ipoh Club was an all-whites institution. The first non-white to be admitted into the club was, understandably, the Sultan of Perak, while the first non-royalty Malaysian to be admitted was Eu Tong Sen, the tin-miner whose name is today more closely associated with his chain of medical shops, Eu Yang Sang. Mr Eu donated the Long Bar for the club, and it is still there today.
The Royal Ipoh Club is located on the western side of the Ipoh Padang, a seven and a half acre of manicured lawn. The Ipoh Padang is a recreational space for football, cricket, tennis and croquet. It was created through donation from the Chinese community in 1898, in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
As with most of the British institutions in Ipoh, the Royal Ipoh Club suffered humiliation during the Japanese Occupation, when not only was most of its vital documents were destroyed, but the Japanese military also dealt it a further humiliation by turning it into a laundry for its officers occupying the St Michael's Institution. And if that was not enough, the original Long Bar was broken down and used for fuel.
Every morning during the war period, government staff were compelled to gather at the Ipoh Padang and participate in the allegiance ceremony.
Today the Royal Ipoh Club - royal because the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, is its patron - no longer discriminate against anyone by race or religion.
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