GEORGE TOWN, Dec 18 — Barely noticeable from the busy main road of Weld Quay is a narrow alleyway with a simple “35@Jetty” sign at the front.
The huge buildings flanking the alleyway were former godowns that have been around for more than a century, built when George Town was a busy trading port.
Early this year, a group of friends saw the potential of the godowns and took a lease of the huge space including the alleyway leading down the side.
The godowns, with their high ceilings and weathered walls, cover 12,000 sq feet of space that has been partitioned into five individual halls.
“When we first visited, it was a storage space and part of a printing operation for a publisher,” the Adjetty Sdn Bhd Operations Co-ordinator Jason Ng said.
He explained that it was a heritage building located within the Unesco Heritage Zone so there were restrictions on restoration and renovation works.
So, instead of restoring the whole building, they merely spruced up the space, cleared out the debris left behind by the publishing company and left the weathered, peeling walls as they were.
“We want to keep the character of the building and leaving the walls as is gave the space a heritage feel to it,” Ng said.
Instead of creating yet another boutique hotel, they decided on turning it into an arts and cultural space.
Named simply “35@Jetty” which is literally its address along Weld Quay and across the road from the jetty, the space was ready and opened in June this year.
It started out by lining the alleyway, known as The Walkway, with stalls featuring local artisans.
“We only allow local artisans who sell unique handmade items to rent stalls at The Walkway,” he said.
The five separate halls in the old godown building are used for cultural events, exhibitions, a cafe and storage.
“Three of the halls are event spaces for rent and sometimes, we may organise cultural events like traditional toy-making workshops or lantern-making workshops,” Ng said.
He said the halls are meant to be a platform for the creative industry to showcase their talents, artwork and ideas.
The cafe — Chill@Jetty — provides refreshments and snacks for tourists and visitors visiting the space.
“We only have sandwiches and snacks initially but due to high demand, we will be introducing proper meals soon,” he said.
Along the walkway, there are now 12 stalls selling handmade items such as hand-sewn bags, costume jewellery, aromatherapy candles and creams, printed T-shirts and batik clothes, batik decoupage handicraft and henna art souvenirs.
Lisa Lim, who makes batik decoupage items, said she used to have a stall at The Top in Komtar before she shifted to 35@Jetty.
Her stall, called Lisa’s Hand-made Decoupage, has a variety of batik flowers fashioned into earrings, pendants and hair clips using the decoupage method.
“Each item is unique because I cut out batik flowers from different Malaysian batik cloth to make each item,” Lim said.
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Another stall, ZNG Art and Maiscrub, features intricate henna art embossed onto bags, notebooks, fridge magnets and hair clips.
Each item is unique as the henna art is hand drawn onto each item by henna artist, Zahidah Noor Ghazalli.
Syaffiq Idham, who runs Maiscrub, mixes a special concoction of body scrubs and shares the stall space with Zahidah.
“Everything in our stall is hand crafted. I mix the scrub on my own and she draws the designs for the items,” he said.
Zahidah also offers henna drawing services at her stall.
There are now plans to open up the rest of the walkway to more local handicraft and arts stalls due to high demand.
Ng said they hope to have about 20 artisan stalls along the walkway soon.
35@Jetty
Weld Quay,
George Town.
Time: 10am-7pm (daily)
