GEORGE TOWN, Sept 3 — Standing tall and elegant on Leith Street is a stately mansion complete with Corinthian-style columns, wooden shuttered windows and incongruously, a Chinese-style fountain complete with a dragon spouting water in front of it.
Designed by architect David Nathaniel, the mansion was commissioned by tycoon Yeo Wee Gark back in 1906 to be his residence; spacious rooms were planned out complete with intricate wrought metal grilles, cast iron columns and marble tiles.
The mansion served as a residence up till World War II when it was used as the Japanese administrative centre during the Japanese Occupation.
After the war, the mansion was converted into a hotel with over 30 rooms and later, extensions were built to create separate bathrooms and toilets for each room.
It remained as the Cathay Hotel for many years but parts of it started to fall into disrepair. Sometime in the 1970s, the operator decided to sublet parts of the hotel grounds to tenants to cover costs.
Single-storey structures were built around the main building and a “health centre” was opened, offering dubious massage and “health” services.
“There were even several ‘escape’ routes from the external structure that led to a narrow back lane behind the house and the lane led out to Muntri Street and Leith Street,” said Eugene Tan.
Tan is the managing director of ET Group, the hospitality consultancy, management and development company that has taken a long lease on the building and turned it into a boutique hotel, The Edison George Town.
The restoration
The Cathay Hotel closed down in late 2013 and ET Group took a long-term lease of the building in 2014 from a foundation that owns it. Refurbishment and restoration works started soon after.
“The single-storey structure for the ‘health centre’ that had sauna rooms and massage rooms was dingy and rundown so we tore that down first,” Tan said.
The main building was also in poor condition; some of the tile works had blackened over the years, parts of the wooden floor on the first floor was decaying, some roof tiles were missing and the ceiling was falling apart.
Due to it being a heritage building located within the George Town World Heritage Zone, Tan said they took extra care to comply with all heritage regulations when restoring the building.
“We made extra effort to comply with all requirements and also to appease the local non-governmental organisations who would visit our project regularly to check on us,” he said.
Lime plaster was used for the walls as required by heritage guidelines and the main architectural works of the whole building including most of its fixtures were maintained.
“Some of the rotten parts such as the carved details on the vaulted ceiling were recreated and installed with the original parts that had been restored,” he said.
The centre court which is an open space in the middle of the mansion, separating the front portion from the back was retained as it was where blocks of granite slabs were used for the floor with cast iron pillars and gables surrounding the space.
“These pillars were cast in Scotland and imported here and these are not just decorative but used as cover for drainage as pipes to drain water from the roofs are hidden in these pillars and goes directly to the drainage in the ground,” he said.
All the original flooring, which is mix of colourful tiles and marble floors, were scrubbed clean and retained. Tan said they kept most of the original fixtures — from the window grilles to the wooden shutters to the carved ceilings — as much as possible.
“We only replaced parts that were too rotten to be restored or the glass on windows that were cracked,” he said.
Only the rooms and ensuite bathrooms were given the most makeover with new furniture, fittings and facilities installed while the floors, doors and windows were retained.
The incongruous fountain, complete with the figurine of a man fishing on what appears to be a craggy mountainside with a gazebo on one side and a dragon spouting water, was also kept due to heritage guidelines.
“The fountain was built in the 1960s but we were not allowed to demolish it so we cleaned it up and kept it,” Tan said.
The Edison experience
The interiors of the 35 rooms are mostly modern contemporary while family rooms located at the former servants’ quarters at the back of the mansion on the first floor are colourful and vibrant.
“We have a wing for family rooms for families with children at the back and in the front, we have our two suites, named George and William respectively, after Sir George Alexander William Leith, the first Lieutenant- Governor of the Prince of Wales Island as this street is named after him,” Tan said.
There is also a 25-metre pool added to the side of the main building where the former “health centre” was located. The pool, hidden from view by lush plants and accessible through the lounge, serves as a spot for guests to relax, said Tan.
It took ET Group eight months to fully restore the building and by mid-July last year, The Edison George Town opened its doors.
The name “Edison” has a story behind it as this project was ET Group’s flagship hotel and a project by father and son team, Eugene and his father Eddie.
“We wanted to combine our names but somehow it doesn’t go well so finally we decided on Eddie and son which became Edison,” Tan said.
Since Edison is also the last name of light bulb inventor Thomas Edison, Tan said they decided to put in unique chandeliers featuring light bulbs instead of the traditional ornate glass chandeliers.
Being its flagship hotel, he said they wanted to be different and this is where they introduced an additional service for guests such as a snack bar in the 24-hour lounge that is free for all guests.
Local snacks are served such as tau sar pneah, jam biscuits, haw flakes and lemon sweets along with modern snacks such as Twisties, yogurt, fruits and juices as well as tea and coffee.
The lounge also serves pre-dinner wine to its guests in the evenings. This is also where guests are served a Continental breakfast and tea-time kueh every day.
“We want to bring back the romance of staying in hotels, back to the days when people go to hotels to enjoy the hospitality and be treated like royalty, where their beds are turned down in the evenings with a chocolate for their nightcap and wine in the evenings,” he said.
Tan’s wife Rina Teoh, who is the executive director of The Edison, said they didn’t want to have a restaurant in the hotel as most guests travelling to Penang would want to experience Penang’s famed hawker food.
“We can’t compete with the local hawker food outside so we decided not to have a restaurant,” she said.
The hotel currently has an all-day pass at RM35 each for locals who would like to use their lounge for meetings and experience their hospitality.
“We might come out with a pass that includes the use of the swimming pool,” Teoh said.
She said the hotel didn’t want to cater only to tourists but also to locals who may want to enjoy a hotel stay in the middle of the city so the all-day pass will serve as a teaser to try out the hotel’s amenities first.
The Edison is affiliated with Small Luxury Hotels of the World and as part of this group, will continue to maintain its standards to be on par with other hotels in the group.
The Edison George Town
15, Leith Street
George Town
10200 Penang.
Tel: 04-2622990
Website: theedisonhotels.com
