The Magician of Leith Street

In the quaint heart of Penang, the island’s conservationist-in-chief, Laurence Loh, talks about how the regeneration of an entire area can begin with just a single building. He unveils the formula for conservation to Kenneth Tan.

It’s a cloudy morning in Penang. Along Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, a light breeze blows past the majestic stretch of colonial buildings, causing the leaves of palms to stir lightly.

Little twittering birds can be heard from above and eager schoolchildren are seen disembarking from the school buses at Saint Xavier’s Institution.

I turn off the road into a very quiet Leith Street, populated by early 20th-century buildings – inns, shophouses – that made up the commercial heart of what was, formerly, the port city of Penang. I pull into a vacant parking spot and sit and wait.

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