Armenian Street

About this place

A narrow street and one of George Town's best known, at the heart of the area on the World Heritage list. It was first called Malay Lane, as it grew up on the site of a Malay settlement, and was later named after the Armenian traders who lived here in the early nineteenth century, some of whose community later founded the famous Eastern and Oriental Hotel. It is lined with old shophouses with colourful fronts and wooden shutters, many now antique and gift shops and small cafés, and lanes branch off it to Chinese clan houses such as Khoo Kongsi and Cheah Kongsi. Today it is Penang's best-known spot for street art, home to the famous mural of two children on a bicycle painted by the artist Ernest Zacharevic in 2012, where visitors queue for photographs. The street also has the house where Sun Yat-sen held his Penang meetings in 1910, now a small museum. Walking it is free; the best time is early morning before the crowds and heat, or late afternoon. Make it part of a walk that takes in the nearby Acheen Street Mosque and Khoo Kongsi.