Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Tuah 1895 Viewing Deck is a rooftop lookout inside the Tuah 1895 lifestyle and dining hub at Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC), Kuala Lumpur, opened on 24 January 2025 by BBCC Development Sdn Bhd, a joint venture of UDA Holdings, Eco World Development Group and the Employees Provident Fund. The name commemorates the site's previous occupant, Pudu Prison, a British colonial jail built in phases between 1891 and 1895 by state engineer Charles Edwin Spooner, whose 394-metre perimeter wall and cell blocks once held up to 950 inmates on the same 7.8-hectare plot along what is now Jalan Hang Tuah. The prison closed in 1996 after 101 years and was demolished between 2009 and 2012, leaving only its main gate and a stretch of wall, preserved today near the plaza the deck sits above. Tuah 1895 opened as a 45,000 sq ft (4,180 sq m) dining and lifestyle complex on the former BBCC sales-gallery site, with the viewing deck offering evening views toward Merdeka 118.
Pudu Prison (Penjara Pudu)
1895-1996 in operation on this ground; complex cleared by 2012
Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC)
2022-present, mixed-use redevelopment of the former prison site
Tuah 1895 Viewing Deck
2025-present
1891-1895
The British colonial government builds Pudu Prison in phases on Jalan Shaw (now Jalan Hang Tuah), on ground previously used as a Chinese cemetery. State engineer Charles Edwin Spooner designs the 7.8-hectare complex, whose 394-metre perimeter wall alone costs 16,000 Straits dollars against a total build cost of about 138,000 Straits dollars.
May 1895
The first roughly 500 inmates are transferred into the newly completed prison, the event that gives Tuah 1895 its later name reference.
August 1895
A cholera and dysentery outbreak, traced to well water drawn from the old burial ground beneath the prison, peaks with 126 recorded cases and 68 deaths in that month alone.
January-October 1942
During the Japanese occupation, the prison is used as a prisoner-of-war camp, holding over 1,000 Allied POWs.
1984
Inmate Khong Yen Chong paints a mural roughly 260 metres (860 ft) long and 4.3 metres (14 ft) high along the prison's outer wall using about 2,000 litres of paint. It is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest mural.
1986
Prisoners hold two staff members hostage for six days in a stand-off that ends without casualties.
1996
Pudu Prison closes after 101 years in operation; inmates are transferred to Sungai Buloh and Kajang prisons, and part of the complex briefly reopens as a museum in 1997.
June 2009-December 2012
The prison complex is demolished to make way for redevelopment, though heritage appeals secure preservation of the main gate and a section of the perimeter wall, including the mural, which is lost with the rest of the wall.
2022
Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC), a mixed-use development by UDA Holdings, Eco World Development Group and the Employees Provident Fund, officially opens on the former prison grounds.
24 January 2025
Tuah 1895 opens on the site of BBCC's former sales gallery along Jalan Hang Tuah, its name deliberately referencing the year Pudu Prison was completed. The complex includes the rooftop viewing deck, positioned for evening sightlines toward Merdeka 118.
Pudu Prison Gate
The prison's original main gate and a stretch of its 394-metre perimeter wall survived the 2009-2012 demolition and were preserved as a heritage marker within the BBCC precinct, standing near the plaza that Tuah 1895 and its rooftop deck sit above.
The '1895' name
Tuah 1895 takes its number from the year Pudu Prison was completed on this ground, a deliberate reference by developer BBCC Development Sdn Bhd to the site's colonial-era past rather than a stylised or invented figure.
Former burial ground beneath the site
Pudu Prison was built over a disused Chinese cemetery; its well, dug into the old burial ground, supplied contaminated water that triggered a cholera and dysentery outbreak peaking in August 1895, with 126 recorded cases and 68 deaths that month.
The lost 'world's longest mural'
Inmate Khong Yen Chong's 1984 mural, roughly 260 metres (860 ft) long, ran along the prison wall and was once listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest. It no longer exists, having been demolished with the rest of the wall in 2009-2012, leaving the preserved gate as the main physical remnant of the prison.
Bukit Bintang City Centre redevelopment
The wider BBCC, opened in 2022, is a joint venture of UDA Holdings, Eco World Development Group and the Employees Provident Fund built across the cleared 7.8-hectare prison footprint, of which Tuah 1895 occupies the former sales-gallery plot.
The number references 1895, the year the British colonial government completed Pudu Prison on this site; developer BBCC Development Sdn Bhd chose the name to mark the ground's history rather than as a stylised figure. The venue's 'Tuah' comes from its address on Jalan Hang Tuah.
The site was previously occupied by Pudu Prison, a colonial jail built between 1891 and 1895 that operated for 101 years before closing in 1996. The prison was demolished between 2009 and 2012 to make way for Bukit Bintang City Centre, of which Tuah 1895 forms part.
Pudu Prison was constructed in phases between 1891 and 1895 by the British colonial Public Works Department, designed by state engineer Charles Edwin Spooner. Its first roughly 500 inmates were transferred there in May 1895.
Yes. The prison's main gate and a section of its 394-metre perimeter wall were preserved during the 2009-2012 demolition and remain on view within the BBCC precinct, close to the Tuah 1895 plaza.
Inmate Khong Yen Chong painted a mural about 260 metres (860 ft) long along the prison's outer wall in 1984, once recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest. It was lost when most of the prison wall was demolished between 2009 and 2012.
Pudu Prison closed in 1996 after 101 years in operation, with inmates transferred to Sungai Buloh and Kajang prisons. Part of the complex briefly reopened as a museum in 1997 before demolition began in 2009.
Bukit Bintang City Centre, which opened in 2022 on the former prison grounds, is a joint venture between UDA Holdings, Eco World Development Group and the Employees Provident Fund. The same developer group opened Tuah 1895, including its rooftop viewing deck, on 24 January 2025.
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