Great Malaysian Railway Journeys
GRAND HOTEL
IPOH

This page was written in 2015. It used to be hosted on a separate Weebly website but Weebly is no longer available for customers in Malaysia so I am transferring the content here.

The Grand Hotel was the place to stay in Ipoh when the 1914 Pamphlet of Information for Travellers was written.

This 40 room hotel was opened on 16th December 1909 to much acclaim from the press and public. It was located on Lahat Road, a few minutes walk or rikisha ride from Ipoh railway station, in a building leased from the family of the late Dato Panglima Kinta Wahab.

Prior to the opening of the Grand, railway travellers would have had to stay at the Government resthouse on Station Road (the Station Hotel above Ipoh's famous railway station was not opened until 1914) or one of the Chinese owned hotels in town.

Pierre Z Creet. Photo from Respected Citizens, by Nadia H Wright.

The Grand Hotel was run by Mr. Pierre Z. Creet, an Armenian businessman who gained his hotel experience at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore which was owned by the Sarkies brothers with whom Creet was closely associated and possible related.

For a time, Pierre was assisted by two of his brothers, Makertich and Simon Creet.

Malcolm Gasper (Gasparian), a fellow Armenian from Raffles, helped run the Grand during 1913.

Pierre Creet was born in Julfa, the Armenian district of Isfahan, Iran on 16th January 1881.

He was described as " a handsome, cultured man with a keen sartorial sense".

The Grand was a luxurious hotel with a planters' and miners' lounge, smoking rooms and a large garage for the new fangled motor cars which were becoming commonplace among the wealthy classes in Ipoh.

Advert from the Pinang Gazette, 3rd May 1912. From Respected Citizens by Nadia H Wright.

Despite the experienced management team and Ipoh's need for a quality hotel, the Grand was not successful financially for a number of reasons. The district's planters and miners were used to buying drinks on credit by signing a chit and when Pierre stopped the chit system (presumably to ease his cash flow and prevent bad debts) a number of disgruntled regulars switched to the Ipoh Club where they could just sign for their gin pahits.

In addition, the opening of the new station hotel in 1914, together with the economic downturn caused by the First World War, meant that the Grand's glittering existence was shortlived and it closed down in June 1918.

Anglo-Chinese School, Lahat Road

The hotel became the Methodist Girl's School for a while before rebirth as the Majestic Hotel under new management. By the 1930s the hotel had once again regained its position as the hub of Ipoh's social life but then the Japanese invasion during WWII finished it off for good. The building is no more and the sprawling campus of the Anglo--Chinese school occupies its site.

FURTHER READING

Respected Citizens
The History of Armenians in Singapore and Malaysia

by Nadia H Wright

Kinta Valley
Pioneering Malaysia's Modern Development

by Khoo Salma Nasution and Abdur-Razzaq Lubis

Share this page:

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger

AUTHOR BIO

David (the one on the left) is the writer behind Malaysia Traveller, sharing first-hand travel advice from over five decades of living and travelling across Asia and the Middle East. Based in Malaysia since 2009 and now in Kuching, he has published over 760 pages on this website, personally visited every place he covers, and uses only his own photos. Readers can learn more on his About Me page. He also shares updates on Facebook and YouTube. He loves uncovering overlooked places that even some Malaysians have never visited.