Birch Memorial Clock Tower

A four-sided Edwardian clock tower facing the Padang on the edge of Ipoh's Old Town, decorated on each face with a relief frieze of "the four virtues" — wisdom, justice, fortitude and patience — flanked by historical figures including Confucius, Solomon, Hammurabi and Muhammad. Each side is topped by a clock that no longer keeps reliable time.

A short walk from St Michael's Institution and the railway station, and easy to combine with the rest of the colonial Old Town in a one-hour walk. Free, always open.

things to do sight old town
A story
James Birch, the first British Resident of Perak, was murdered in his bath at Pasir Salak in 1875 by a group of Malay chiefs who resented British interference in local affairs. The clock tower was erected in his memory in 1909 — a piece of colonial monumentalism that has now stood in independent Malaysia for more than three times as long as Birch lived in it.

Other places in Things to Do