Jawi Peranakan Mansion

Even before George Town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, entrepreneur Christopher Ong had already transitioned from investment banker to heritage hotelier. His first foray into the industry was in Sri Lanka in 2003, when he opened the Galle Fort Hotel. When he returned to Penang in 2007, he started George Town Heritage & Hotels, then acquired and restored a bungalow he renamed Clove Hall. His portfolio soon expanded with more properties, including Seven Terraces and Muntri Mews.

Jawi Peranakan Mansion is one of his more recent projects, which opened back in 2017. The mansion's name refers to the Jawi Peranakan, the community of locals with mixed Muslim South-Asian and Malay heritage.

When Chris Ong's George Town Heritage & Hotels acquired the Jawi Peranakan Mansion in 2012, it was in a dilapidated state and required a lot of restoration. The work took three years, but it wouldn't open as a hotel until January of 2017.

Built as an Anglo-Indian mansion for one of Penang's Jawi Peranakan families, the property exemplifies a blending of British colonial architecture with Indian design elements from the Mughal period. Notable aspects of the mansion's aesthetics include lime plaster walls, wood lattice panels, plantation shutters, and decorative cornices.

For its eight guestrooms and interior spaces, their furnishings reflect the mansion's Mughal-influenced past. These include elements like hand block-printed indigo textiles, silk and wool Kashmir throws, Kelim rugs, and brass mirrors. Chris even went the extra mile to procure authentic fittings, fixtures, and furniture from India. And for items he could not import, he commissioned local artisans to create culturally accurate reproductions.

While Jawi Peranakan Mansion's restaurants are still being worked on, visitors can find plenty of food options within the same neighborhood. Yi Bin - The Mansion of Tea Art is a colonial-style teahouse that's just right across the street, serving traditional Chinese Peranakan cuisine. A couple of doors down is D'Dapor, which specializes in Malaysian cuisine, offering items like ayam goreng nusantara and sapi hitam manis.

The Jawi Peranakan Mansion is part of George Town's UNESCO World Heritage Site districts and offers numerous historic landmarks close by. The Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi temple is a Chinese clan temple known for its well-preserved architecture, and also contains some relics from the clan's long history. A nearby museum you can visit is the George Town Mansion, which showcases collections of weapons, artworks, and handicrafts from Penang's various communities. The Komtar Tower, built in 1974, is comparatively a more recent addition to George Town, but it's also home to modern attractions such as theme parks and shopping malls.

If you're looking for more things to do and places to see, the management can provide partner or personal referrals around George Town.