Dating Old Brunei Town

I bought this photograph of old Brunei Town on ebay a few weeks ago. It was actually sent by someone called Philip to an Elsie congratulating her on being a permanent staff. It's a set of two photographs.

This photograph is that of the late 1950s. I can confirm it by the date of the note at the back of the photograph. But one way you can tell is to look at the photograph itself. Look at what I marked as A. A is the old Boon Pang Cinema. This was replaced in the 1960s with a new Boon Pang Cinema. The old Boon Pang did not face the padang but the new Boon Pang faced the Padang. Of course, the new Boon Pang gave way to the IBB Building (now BIBD) in the early 1990s. By 1992, the new IBB Building was already up and standing on the same site.

B is the old Hong Kong Bank. It was a small building in the 1950s and 1960s but it was replaced by the now 5 storey building sometime in the 1970s.

C is the site of the Royal Brunei Police Force HQ in town. The view of all the police quarters formed the foreground of this photograph. You can just make out the side of the old Police HQ building. This was all removed by 1983 so that the whole site was vacant in time for the Independence celebration at the end of 1983.

Old Brunei town photographs are interesting but relatively easy to date once you know your history.