No more iconic Pudu Jail wall to be seen after 10pm tonight

The famous wall, bordering the Pudu Jail, in the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur will be demolished to make way for widening of the roads which are usually congested. Future developments are to take place in the large area which will in turn demolish the historical Pudu Jail Building soon too.

This is the excerpt obtained from The Star Online:

KUALA LUMPUR: When the clock strikes 10 tonight, the 394-metre long wall of Pudu Prison fronting Jalan Pudu will be demolished after having served its purpose for the past 100 years.

Construction on the wall, also known as Pudu Gaol, started in 1891 in Jalan Hang Tuah and it was fully completed in 1895 at a cost of RM15,360.90.

The 4.5m high wall had once set a record for the longest mural in the world (384m). It will be torn down to make way for a road-widening project, including the construction of an underpass.

A section of Pudu Prison wall fronting Jalan Pudu in Kuala Lumpur is expected to be demolished tonight. The 394m wall of the prison, built in 1895 and closed in 1996, was once famous for having the longest mural in the world at 384m. The wall will make way for a road-widening project to ease traffic congestion in the city centre. – BRIAN MOH / The Star

The prison stopped operating in 1996 when the building could no longer cater to the high volume of up to 6,550 people at a time since 1985. The prisoners were subsequently shifted to the Sungai Buloh Prison, 36km from here.

The rest of the prison, which sits amid flourishing development in the Bukit Bintang’s Golden Triangle, will remain for now, but the site has been earmarked for a mega development project (mixed development of hotels, offices, residences, mall, etc)

A passer-by taking pictures of the wall with death sentence warning to drug traffickers. – BRIAN MOH / The Star

Last night, a group of activists gathered in front of the city’s iconic building to say “goodbye”. Some even performed Chinese funeral rites including breaking ceramic bowls and burning paper offerings. A participant, who only wanted to be identified as Min Lik, said the group was not there to protest against the demolition but to mourn its “passing”.

“Pudu Jail is part of Kuala Lumpur’s landscape and it is a major heritage building for the city,” she said.

On the other hand, the government had mentioned that the building and the wall is not heritage building, it is only an old abandoned building in the heart of KL, historical but meaningless….kinda agree a bit to it, because that place really took up quite a large area in a strategic location in capital of Malaysia. Make ways for future developments, KL need that more….especially in the Golden Triangle area there….