Carved wooden shutters and a covered five foot walkway run along its shophouse row.
What Armenian Street looks like
Armenian Street runs narrow and mostly flat between Acheen Street and Beach Street, two storey Straits Chinese shophouses lined up on both sides. Carved wooden shutters cover the upper floor windows, and plaster fronts carry decorative tiles and Chinese character inscriptions over the doorways. A stretch of the row still keeps its covered five foot walkway, though some shopfronts further along have swapped it for an open porch.
The at number 128 is an 1860s two storey house, now the Penang Islamic Museum. A few doors along, the house at number 120 is the Sun Yat Sen Museum. Toward the Beach Street end, the sits behind a tiled courtyard at the corner of Cannon Street. The clan house opens off a narrow lane at number 8.
A side alley off the street is strung with a canopy of paper umbrellas over its paved width, shophouse side walls close on either side. Past Beach Street the road continues toward the water as the Ghaut, where the timber stilt houses of stand over the harbour a short walk beyond.
Shot in Armenian Street
Anna and the King dressed Armenian Street's own shophouse row as old Bangkok, using the merchant facades with little extra work. Inside the Syed Al-Attas Mansion at 128 Armenian Street, now the Penang Islamic Museum, the crew shot the scene where Anna and Prince Chulalongkorn find Tuptim held as a slave. A few doors along at 120 Armenian Street, Road to Dawn restaged Sun Yat-sen's secret 1910 meeting inside the same house, now the Sun Yat Sen Museum.
Anna and the King, 1999
The Tuptim rescue
Played a Bangkok merchant house, Bangkok, Siam, 1860s
Anna and Prince Chulalongkorn find Tuptim chained inside the Syed Al-Attas Mansion at 128 Armenian Street, used for the scene with little dressing. The same stretch of Armenian Street stood in for Bangkok's streets elsewhere in the film. Street View
What Armenian Street can double for
Heeren Street in Melaka, Malaysia
Heeren Street's row of Straits Chinese townhouses has the same carved timber shutters and tiled friezes behind a covered five foot walkway as Armenian Street. Melaka's fronts are generally taller and more heavily tiled, so a tighter frame on the shutters and walkway holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching Straits Chinese townhouses now.
Hoi An Ancient Town in Quang Nam, Vietnam
Hoi An's narrow lanes carry the same two storey timber shuttered shopfronts and tiled roofs, with a similar run of merchant houses along the water. Hoi An's lanterns and more uniform restoration give it away in a wide shot, so tighter frames on a single shopfront hold the match best. Try searching timber shuttered shopfronts now.
Club Street in Singapore
Club Street's shophouse row has the same two storey scale and shuttered upper floors, repainted in brighter colours and fitted with glass shopfronts and awnings for bars and offices. The glossier paintwork and absence of hanging shop signs give Singapore away in a wide shot, so tighter frames on the upper floor shutters hold the match best. Try searching shophouse row now.
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