The St George's Anglican Church is the oldest Anglican church in Malaysia, and is the main place of worship for the British colonial administrators in Penang. Located along Farquhar Street, it is one of the loveliest British colonial heritage buildings within the core zone of George Town's Unesco World Heritage Site. It is on the route of a George Town walking tour I am establishing for Penang Travel Tips and AsiaExplorers. The formation of the St George's Church was credited to Reverend Robert Sparke Hutchings, the same person who founded the Penang Free School, the oldest English school in Southeast Asia, and who gave his name to Hutchings School nearby.
The St George's Church was named after the patron saint of England. The saint's name was often called out in battle, a practice that goes back to the 12th century. The church itself was built in 1816 using convict labour, when Colonel John Alexander Bannerman was the Governor of Penang. The cost of building it was 60,000 Spanish dollars. This was a princely sum, considering the British paid only 10,000 Spanish dollars per annum to Kedah for Penang, while they bought Singapore a few years later for also 60,000 Spanish dollars.
The church was designed by Captain Robert N. Smith of Madras Engineers. (Smith is also a gifted artist whose oil paintings of Penang landscape still grace the walls of the Penang State Museum nearby.) The church was designed in the Georgian Palladian style - that's a combination of the Georgian style, named after the reigns of King George I and IV, 1714-1830; and the Palladian style, named after the Grecian architecture of a Roman called Palladius. (Compare it to the St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore). This calls for graceful Grecian columns along the front of the building. The original roof was flat. However, it was modified to its present gable shape in 1864, after the original flat roof was found to be unsuitable for the weather in Penang.
The first significant event to take place at the St George's Church was the marriage of Janet, daughter of Governor Bannerman, to William Edward Philips, in 1818. Philips was the man who took over the pepper estate belonging to Francis Light, on which stands Suffolk House, believed to also have been built by him. Incidentally, Philips was acting Governor of Penang in 1817, when the construction of the church building was started, and completed in 1818, buring Bannerman's term.
Services are still held at the St George's Church twice every Sunday, at 8.30am and 10.30am.
Address: 1, Lebuh Farquhar, 10200 Penang, Malaysia.
Telephone: 604 261 2739 o Fax: 604 264 2292
Getting there
Take the City Hop On Free Shuttle Bus from Rapid Penang and alight at Station No. 6 (Muzium). The St George's Church is located a short distance to the left of the Penang Museum.
Upper North Archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia
The following are the Anglican churches on the northern part of West Malaysia:
St Paul's Church, Lorong Rusa 6, Taman Selamat Alma, 14000 Bukit Mertajam, tel: 551 4005 (Rev George Micheal)
St Philip & St James' Church, 3A, Jalan Kapal Terbang, 08000 Sungai Petani, Kedah, tel: 016 499 6929 (Rev Alex Kok), 016 676 7460 (Rev Gerard Emmanuel)
St Thomas Church, Jalan Hospital, 09000 Kulim, Kedah, tel: 551 4005 (Rev George Michael), 226 0614 (Rev Stephen Soe)
Photos of St George's Anglican Church
The magnificent whitewashed St George's Anglican Church, with the Francis Light Memorial in its compound.
Blindingly white walls of the St George's Anglican Church.
The gable-shaped roof and Grecian columns on the front of St George's Anglican Church.
The church steeple as seen from the frangipanni in the compound.
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Penang Travel Tips is researched and written by Timothy Tye, universally known as Tim. The text is the copyright of Timothy Tye, and may not be copied for commercial use or re-published in another website without the author's permission. Information provided is in goodwill and is believed to be correct and up-to-date at time of writing. Photographs on this website are the copyright of the author and may not be reused without prior permission. For commercial licensing of photographs, read the licensing terms.
