The requirement for
arcades in urban plans may be found as early as 1573 in the Royal Ordinances by
Philip II of Spain.
Batavia Batavia (now
Jakarta) became a capital of the
Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century. As soon as
Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) occupied the port town of
Jayakarta, he started construction following European fashion. In the middle of the 17th century,
Johan Nieuhof, described how two market buildings run parallel with central galleries. Nieuhof further mentioned that the building were divided into 'five walks' or galleries. It has been speculated that the 'five walks' are the
kaki lima, referring to the space rather than the width of the passage'. KakilimaFig9.jpg|Batavia street-scape illustrated in c.1760. KakilimaFig11.jpg|Kaki lima in Kota, Jakarta, c.1990. KakilimaFig5.jpg|Kaki lima in Melaka, c.1990. When the
British East India Company (EIC) ruled the
Dutch East Indies during the
Napoleonic War,
Thomas Stamford Raffles was appointed the Lieutenant-Governor of the
Dutch East Indies in 1811–1815. Raffles was in Batavia in 1811–1815 as governor during the
British Java period and may have observed the
verandahs, footways and continuous
eaves of Batavia.
Singapore Raffles
founded modern Singapore in 1819, and that is where the five-foot way became firmly established as an architectural feature of the region. He included this and other details in his
Town Plan of 1822. Raffles issued a set of instructions on how the new colony may be organised in his plan for Singapore in 1822. He stipulated that the buildings in the newly established colony should be uniform and should be built of brick and tiles to reduce fire risks. He added: This became the five-foot way, and this feature of
shophouses in Singapore was observable by the 1840s from the drawings of surveyor and engineer
John Turnbull Thomson. The land leaseholder had to provide public walkways of certain width in front of their shops and houses. As they constructed the second floor above the public walkways, it formed roofed continuous walkways along the street. Although it was planned as a public walkway, the five-foot way would also become a place for hawkers to trade, and it was used as retail, storage, and even living spaces. Attempts in Singapore to clear the walkways of hawkers who were obstructing the walkway in the 1880s led to the so-called Verandah Riots. British traveller
Isabella Bird provided a vivid description of the bustling local five-footway, offering a rare perspective from the late 19th century: John Turnbull Thomson - Singapore Town from Pearl's Hill Looking East.jpg|View of Singapore c.1845, shophouses with arcades can be seen in this drawing by
John Turnbull Thomson Singapore 2014-01-25 (12848733274).jpg|A five-foot way in Singapore A five foot way in Singapore.jpg|A five-foot way in Singapore
Other Straits Settlements Ordinances and by-laws requiring such verandah walkways were then enacted from the mid-19th and early 20th century in the
Straits Settlements and Malayan towns, for example, the 1884 building by-laws introduced by
Frank Swettenham in the rebuilding of
Kuala Lumpur provided for the inclusion of 5-foot passageways beside the road. However, the term "five-foot way" was not specifically mentioned in such ordinances and by-laws, rather words as arcade, verandah or verandah-way or five-foot-path were used. The term may have been coined by builders in response to the minimum width of the walkway. The walkway would become an integral feature of many settlements in neighbouring British colonies in the Malaya peninsula, and by the later half of the 19th century became a feature of the distinctive "Strait Settlement Style" buildings. It is still commonly found in the towns and cities of Malaysia. Although it was originally a feature colonial-era buildings, many buildings in the post-colonial era in Malaysia still incorporated a sheltered walkway, although not necessarily in the form of an arcade. Penang - Part 4 - Relics (25232695510).jpg|Shophouses in Penang with a five-foot way Five Foot Way in George Town , Penang.jpg|A tiled five-foot way in Penang Kaki-Lima-Chinatown.jpg|A five-foot way in
Kuala Trengganu, Malaysia A five foot way in Kuching, Sarawak.jpg|A five-foot way in
Kuching, Sarawak
Southern China, Taiwan and Hong Kong Colony The Five Foot Way or Verandah regulation was also applied for town planning in
Taiwan in the late 19th century and in South China in early 20th century under the
Republic of China. The verandah may be found as the
qilou (arcade) of these regions. In the early colonial period of
Hong Kong, any construction and projection was not allowed above the public walkways, but the colonial government issued "the Verandah Regulation" in 1878 to enable adjacent land leaseholder to build overhanging second floor above the walkways to cope with the lack of living space. KakilimaFig18.jpg|Verandah in Hong Kong Colony, c. 1890. KakilimaFig20.jpg|Qílóu in Guanzhou, c. 1990.
Southeast Asia This architectural feature also spread to other South East Asian countries, such as
Thailand, the
Philippines,
Brunei, and
Burma after the mid-19th century. Such feature may have been introduced to
Bangkok after the visit of
Rama V to Singapore in 1871, while towns in southern Thailand were influenced by their proximity to Malaya. It remains a prominent element in the architecture in
Singapore and
Malaysia. ==Communal five-foot way==