Abandoned Runnymede Hotel (George Town)

Malaysia / Pulau Pinang / Butterworth / George Town
 place with historical importance, abandoned / shut down
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The Runnymede hotel started off being Sir Raffles villa where he lived with his wife Olivia and his two sisters. In 1921 after the roof of the villa caught fire and a hotel was built on the site by two Scotsmen W. Foster and H. Parker. It was named the Runnymede hotel after Raffles villa. The main 3 storey block fcing the sea was erected in the 1930's and is the most famous building in the compound today. The hotel had it's glory days then and featured Chauffeured motorcars, a reading room, book store, ballroom. post office and it's very own railway ticketing office. However in 1940 the once grand hotel became a British military base and during the war it remained so. After the war it was a Malaysian military base and has been like that ever since. In 2006 the hotel compound became abandoned as the army secured a new base. Who knows what will become of the glorious hotel...
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Coordinates:   5°25'27"N   100°19'46"E

Comments

  • I lived in the Runnymede Hotel annex - just inside the main gate on the left in 1968/9 when I was a teacher at the BAC School in Minden Barracks.All the single teachers lived there. Some of the nurses from the Hospital at RAAF Butterworth lived in the main building. Officers families came for holidays and NZ and Australian officers came on R and R from Vietnam.There were no Malay military personnel there at all at this time.I believe the manager was a Retired Officer. There was a shop and hairdresser. I parked my car in a row of garages on the left.A wonderful time.
This article was last modified 5 years ago