Gold songket
Shimmering royal textile.
Jorge Láscar from Melbourne, Australia — CC BY 2.0 · Shesmax — CC BY-SA 4.0 · LeSpiral — CC0 · Shesmax — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Marcin Konsek — CC BY-SA 4.0
A museum of Malaysian textiles in a handsome historic building beside the Sultan Abdul Samad Building near Merdeka Square. The British architect Arthur Benison Hubback designed it in the Indo-Saracenic style, with domes and red-and-white striped arches, and it was completed in 1905 as the headquarters of the Federated Malay States Railways. The building passed through many government departments before opening as the textile museum in 2010. Its galleries show the history of textiles in Malaysia: old spinning and weaving tools, batik in its painted and printed forms, songket woven with gold and silver thread, and the costumes and jewellery of Malaysia's different peoples. A foreign adult ticket costs five ringgit, and it opens daily from nine in the morning to six in the evening. It is air-conditioned and quiet, good for the hottest hours. It sits in the heart of the historic quarter, a few minutes from Masjid Jamek station, so pair it with Merdeka Square, Masjid Jamek and the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery on a walk.
Shimmering royal textile.
Painting and printing on cloth.
Red-and-white arches.
Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, next to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building and Merdeka Square
Sultan Abdul Samad BuildingGleaming copper domes, horseshoe arches and a forty-one-metre clock tower: finis3 minutes walk4.6
Central Market (Pasar Seni)A pale-blue Art Deco building from 1937 that was once the city's fish and vegeta3 minutes walk4.5
Merdeka SquareAt midnight on 31 August 1957 the Union Jack came down here and the flag of an i3 minutes walk4.6
Sin Sze Si Ya TempleThe oldest Taoist temple in Kuala Lumpur, built in the 1860s by Yap Ah Loy, the 4 minutes walk
Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek MosqueThis is where Kuala Lumpur was born. At exactly this spot the Klang and Gombak r4 minutes walk4.5An hour to an hour and a half to see the galleries at an easy pace; combine it with neighbouring Merdeka Square for a half day.