Top 20 fun things to enjoy in Kota Kinabalu! (6. Stroll up to the Atkinson Clock Tower)

Sadly, very few buildings in Kota Kinabalu survived World War II. In this blog we concentrate on one of the fortunate survivors, the Atkinson Clock Tower which is also Kota Kinabalu’s oldest building dating back to 1905. The clock tower is located ‘behind’ the town, just where the ground starts to rise into Signal Hill and close to Gaya Street that is home to the Sunday Market.

Francis George Atkinson - his life

There’s quite a story to the Atkinson Clock Tower and we need to delve into the colonial past to learn more. Francis George Atkinson was born in 1874 on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands and spent some time in Australia prior to moving to North Borneo where he was appointed in 1901 as the first ‘District Officer’ in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). The responsibilities of this important post included that of an administrator and local magistrate, and he would have been the link between the professional and technical services of the NBCC (North Borneo Chartered Company) and the local people.

By all accounts Atkinson was muscular and handsome, and popular with his colleagues. However, tragedy struck in 1902 when he died of a heart attack, suffered as a result of contracting malaria. Just 28 when he died, he was buried on the nearby island of Labuan, now a Malaysian federal territory.

Atkinson Clock Tower - General Information

His mother, Mary Edith Atkinson wanted to commemorate his life and presented the town of Jesselton with a two-faced clock, manufactured by William Potts of Leeds. In turn, Jesselton town decided to build the clock into a clock tower and the fifty feet clock tower, built from public donations, it was completed in 1905. Built of locally sourced merbau timber, this timber that is also known as ‘Borneo Teak’ is popular in manufacture of flooring and possesses the benefits of being extremely durable as well as resistant to weathering, decay and termites.

Looking at the design, it’s easy to see the British influence but look closer and you can see both Chinese influence (look at the shape of the roof) and Malay influence (look closer still and you can observe that the weather vane contains the letters ‘U’, ‘S’, ‘T’ & ‘B’ for utara, selatan, timur & barat (Malay for north, south, east and west).

As mentioned, the Atkinson Clock Tower was one of only four buildings to avoid the bombing, fire and destruction of World War II (however some repairable damage was sustained from machine-gun fire). In 1959 the clock was refurbished to celebrate the city’s diamond jubilee and it is said that the original clock was replaced in 1964. In 1998 the Clock Tower was gazetted locally as a historic building that accordingly should be protected as a heritage site. The Clock Tower celebrated its centenary in 2005 and the Sabah Museum, who continue to take responsibility for the building’s upkeep tried to contact FG Atkinson’s descendants, sadly without success.

Atkinson Clock Tower - today

In 2011 there was a move by local developers to build a Shopping Mall and they requested to move the Clock Tower, but this was resisted – in fact local tour guides petitioned to prevent the Clock Tower being moved however the battle isn’t over as recently as 2017 developers again were making requests to move the Clock Tower to the sea front. On a practical point there must a significant question mark as to whether this aging and historic wooden structure could withstand such a move.

To conclude, one interesting fact is that the clock is maintained and ‘wound up’ every week by entering a very cramped 4 feet by 4 feet space within the clock. This work has been carried since 1946 by three generations of the Wah family of Yick Ming Watch Company, an extraordinary record in itself.

Top Tip for Visitors:

Whilst you're at Atkinson Clock Tower why not walk up the adjacent pathway up Signal Hill to enjoy panoramic views of Kota Kinabalu from Signal Hill Observation Park.

About Martin

Martin is a British expat living in Kota Kinabalu who arranges tailored tours within Sabah primarily for British and Western tourists on behalf of Blue Kinabalu Travel Agency.