Birch House

Birch House is a heritage building along Dato Kramat Road in George Town, Penang. It was built to serve as the office of the tin smelting plant of Escoy Smelting, known in the late 20th century as Eastern Smelting. The 5.3 hectare site of the tin smelting plant is now developed as Penang Times Square, and Birch House is being retained as the headquarters of the developer, Ivory Properties Group following a RM2.5 million restoration work.

Birch House was built around 1908. It was named after Sir Ernest Woodford Birch, the popular British Resident of Perak between 1905-1909, who was a moving force in the development of the tin smelting works in Penang.

The tin-smelting plant itself was founded by Lee Chin Ho, who started it in 1897. Tin mined in the peninsula from North Malaya all the way to southern Thailand was transported to Penang for smelting. The roads around the smelting plant were named after tin mining areas from where the ore originated. Hence roads within the vicinity were given names such as Tongkah Road and Trang Road.