Sultan Abdul Samad Building

About Sultan Abdul Samad Building

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building is a late-19th-century building located along Jalan Raja in front of Dataran Merdeka and the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The building originally housed the offices of the British colonial administration, and was known simply as Government Offices in its early years. In 1974, it was renamed after Sultan Abdul Samad, the reigning sultan of Selangor at the time when construction began.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building is Kuala Lumpur's most famous historic building, its long facade stretching along Jalan Raja in front of Independence Square and the Royal Selangor Club. Built in 1897 to designs by the British architects A. C. Norman and A. B. Hubback to house the offices of the British colonial administration, it was known simply as the Government Offices in its early years and later became the first administrative centre of the Malayan government; in 1974 it was renamed after Sultan Abdul Samad of Selangor (reigned 1857–1898), who ruled when construction began. The building is famed for its Indo-Saracenic, Islamic-inspired architecture, with copper onion domes, pointed arches and red brickwork, and for its 40-metre clock tower, the usual gathering point for New Year countdowns and National Day parades. For decades it housed the country's superior courts: the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal, which moved to the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya in 2003, and the High Court of Malaya, which moved to the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex in 2007; afterwards it held the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Most recently restored in 2026, it now contains a museum presenting the history of the building and of Malaysia in general, along with galleries, exhibition spaces and several cafes, according to Wikipedia and Wikivoyage.

Where:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia