I Love KL
The famous letter sculpture.
Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0
A small gallery on the history of Kuala Lumpur in an elegant colonial building on Merdeka Square, built in 1898 as the government printing office of the Federated Malay States. In front of its entrance stands the famous I Love KL letter sculpture, one of the busiest photo spots in the city. The ground floor tells the city's story from a tin-mining village where two rivers meet to a modern capital, with photographs, documents and models of the historic buildings around the square. Its highlight is a huge scale model of the city whose towers and streets light up in a short show. A ticket costs about ten ringgit, around half of it returned as a voucher for the café or gift shop, and it opens from nine in the morning to half past six in the evening; some sources mention a weekly closing day, so check before going. It also has a workshop making wooden souvenirs and a café known for its pastries. It is a good start to a walk around the historic quarter, before the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Masjid Jamek and the National Textile Museum, all a few steps away.
The famous letter sculpture.
A huge lit-up model.
An elegant colonial building.
Jalan Raja, Merdeka Square (Dataran Merdeka)
National Textile MuseumA museum of Malaysian textiles in a handsome historic building beside the Sultan1 minute walk
Sultan Abdul Samad BuildingGleaming copper domes, horseshoe arches and a forty-one-metre clock tower: finis2 minutes walk4.6
Merdeka SquareAt midnight on 31 August 1957 the Union Jack came down here and the flag of an i3 minutes walk4.6
Central Market (Pasar Seni)A pale-blue Art Deco building from 1937 that was once the city's fish and vegeta4 minutes walk4.5
St Mary's CathedralAn elegant small Anglican church at the northern end of Merdeka Square, one of t4 minutes walkNo, the sculpture stands outside the entrance on the square and is free to photograph; the ticket is for the gallery and the city model inside.