Why was Brickfield name Brickfields? Answer

While sharing a car with some classmates on the way to a lunch get-together in Ukay Heights, we passed Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur, a classmate remark: "Do you know why Brickfields named such?"

According to him, in the early days, Brickfield was very muddy and filed with houses made of mud and ....(forgot). When the British came, they ordered that house be build using bricks and that was the reason Brickfields was named Brickfields.

I did a little research and found that he was not too far off at Wikipedia - Brickfields. It seems Kuala Lumpur was flooded in 1881 following a fire earlier which destroyed the town's buildings made of wood and atap (thatching). Frank Swettenham, the Selangor British Resident ordered that buildings be made of bricks and tiles instead.

Kapitan Yap Ah Loy responded by purchasing a big piece of land where the current Brickfields is located and started a brick industry to supply bricks for the rebuilding of Kuala Lumpur. Thus the area was famous for producing good quality bricks and Brickfields became associated with bricks.


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