Patrick Comerford
The Brooke era in Sarawak lasted for more than a century, from 1841 to 1946. Almost 80 years after the Brookes ceded Sarawak to Britain, Brooke-era buildings continue as an important part of the architectural legacy of Kuching.
These Brooke buildings in Kuching include Fort Margherita and the Astana or former Brooke palace, both on the north side of the river; the Old Court House facing them on the south side of the river and once the seat of Sarawak’s government; the Round Tower and the Square Tower, which I wrote about last week; the Brooke obelisk; and the Brooke Dockyard.
In addition, the story of the Brooke family is told in museums in Fort Margherita and at the Old Court House run by the Brooke Foundation.
Fort Margherita stands out as a monumental landmark on a hill on the north side of the river. It was built in 1879 by Charles Brooke, the second Rajah of Sarawak, in the style of an English castle and designed to protect Kuching from pirates and invaders.
Brooke named Fort Margherita after his wife, Margaret Alice Lili de Windt (1849-1936). When they were married at Highworth, near Swindon, Wiltshire, on 28 October 1869, she was given the title of Ranee of Sarawak and the style of Her Highness.
The fort was built facing the then fast-expanding town centre of Kuching. The three-storey tower block has battlements with a watchpoint on top. Set into the wall itself are wooden windows from which the cannons were fired.
The courtyard is surrounded by a high wall inlaid with sharp glass shards for protection. Prisoners continued to be executed in this courtyard, up until the Japanese occupation and World War II.
The fort was used as a police museum from 1971 before being handed over to the Government of Sarawak. Today, it is a tourist attraction housing the Brooke Gallery, an exhibition showcasing the history of Sarawak under the Brooke dynasty.
The Brooke Gallery opened in Fort Margherita on 24 September 2016, the 175th anniversary of the founding of the State of Sarawak. The gallery is an initiative by Jason Brooke, a grandson of the last Rajah Muda of Sarawak, Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke. Jason Brooke grew up in Dublin, went to the High School, studied at UCD and has an MPhil from Trinity College Dublin.
The Brooke Gallery runs the Aspire Programme as part of a community outreach to schools, giving pupils an opportunity to learn more about the history of Sarawak, the Brooke administration and the heritage of Sarawak.
Fort Margherita is separated by the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building from the Astana, a former Brooke palace that is now the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak.
The name Astana is a variation of istana, meaning palace. It was built in 1870 by the second Rajah, Charles Brooke, as a wedding gift for his wife Margaret. She arrived in Sarawak in 1870, and the royal couple then lived in the Astana as their main home. She later reminisced about life in the Astana and colonial Borneo in her memoir My Life in Sarawak (1913).
The Astana was originally three separate buildings that were interconnected by short and narrow passageways. It has undergone major renovations and alterations to make it the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak. The palace is not normally open to the public, although the landscaped gardens are, and they can be reached by a boat across the Sarawak River.
On the facing, south bank of the river, the Old Court House was built in 1871 as the seat of Sarawak’s government, and replaced an earlier wooden court house built in 1847. The first building on the site was a two-storey wooden building erected in 1847 as a church and day school by a Lutheran Missionary named Rupe. However, Rupe returned to Germany and his church and school did not survive.
When Dr Francis Thomas McDougall, who later became the first Anglican Bishop of Borneo, arrived in June 1848, he and his family stayed at the upper portion of the building until the Bishop’s House was completed in 1849. The building was then taken over by the Rajah, James Brooke, who converted the classrooms into a court.
There are no further records of the original court building until the Insurrection of the Bau Gold Mine Chinese Kongsi between 18 and 21 February 1857. Liu Shanbang, the leader of the Chinese Kongsi, captured Kuching, proclaimed himself king for the day on the Rajah’s seat in the court, and ordered Brooke’s men to appear before him and report on Brooke’s position.
That first court building was demolished in 1858 on the instructions of Charles Brooke, who later succeeded as the Second Rajah in 1868. He commissioned a new building to house the courts and other government offices under the same roof, but it took seven years to complete the building.
The Court House was officially opened 150 years ago by Major William Henry Rodway (1836-1924), the Acting Resident of Sarawak, on 3 June 1874, with parades and guards of honour also marking Charles Brooke’s birthday.
The Court House was one of the most majestic buildings built in Kuching during the Brooke era. It is symmetrically arranged, with four main buildings surrounding an internal courtyard, with two smaller annexes protruding towards the Sarawak River.
This is a superb collection of buildings, possibly influenced by Roman courthouse design, with magnificent belian or ironwood roofs, massive columns enclosing outer galleries and beautiful detailing inside and out, reflecting local art forms.
The paneling of the courtroom ceiling bore Dayak motifs depicting the tradition of the people from Baram who helped to design and complete it in 1951. Huge tapering columns support the roof along the corridors.
The main entrance has a colonial-baroque clock tower that was added in 1883. The clock is said to have been installed and maintained by the Mok family of clockmakers of Carpenter Street.
The clock is supported by twin columns at each corner of the square corridor below it. The unique carvings on the railings of its balcony are believed to be of Roman influence. There used to be a small room in the tower where the Kuching Municipal Council often held its meetings. However, it was closed after World War II.
Beside the building were the Resident’s office, the Surveyor’s office and the Government Printer’s Office. The Treasury Office, Post Office, Audit Office and Shipping Office were at the far end of the building towards Tun Haji Openg Road.
The General Council met in the court house from 1878. It was known as the Council Negeri from 1903, and continued to meet in the court house until 1973. The building was later used as the Administrative Centre of the High Court of Borneo, now the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak.
The Old Courthouse has recently been transformed into a cultural and art space, with frequent exhibitions, concerts and other activities. One wing of the building is home to the Commons restaurant and the Den bar.
The complex also houses the Ranee Museum with a unique collection of artefacts telling the story of the life, legend and legacy of Ranee Margaret Brooke, wife of the second Rajah, Charles Brooke.
The other buildings in the court complex include the Japanese Building separating Carpenter Street and Kuching’s China town from India Street and built by the Japanese when they occupied Sarawak in 1941-1945.
Three other Brooke-era buildings in the vicinity are the Round Tower and the Square Tower, and the Brooke Dockyard.
The Brooke Memorial or obelisk in front of the Old Court House was designed by the Irish-born architect Denis Santry (1879-1960) of Swan and Maclaren Architects Singapore, the same architectural practice that designed Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral in Kuching. Santry’s principal work in Kuching is the General Post Office (1931), with the Brooke coat-of-arms crowning the pediment.
The obelisk was unveiled 100 years ago on 13 October 1924 by Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963), the third and last Rajah of Sarawak in memory of his father, Charles Brooke, who had ruled as the second Rajah from 1868 to 1917.
The granite obelisk is about 24 ft with a base measuring 18 ft in diameter. On each of the four supporting pilasters are bronze tablets designed by FJ Wilkinson, showing four different ethnic groups in Sarawak, the Dayak, Malay, Chinese and Kayan, and bronze tablets with descriptive inscriptions in various languages.
On the front is a profile of Charles Brooke in marble, a replica of the bust of Brooke by Baroness von Gleichen, and the heraldic arms of the Brooke family.
Almost 80 years after the rule of the Brooke Rajahs came to an end in Sarawak, the family’s legacy continues in the many fine buildings erected in Kuching during the Brooke era.
The Brooke coat-of-arms continues to be seen throughout Kuching, sometimes cropping up in the most unexpected of places, including shopfronts and on street corners.
1 comment:
Beautiful writeup of the Brooke history. It's very informative.
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