The 'landmark' of the beginning of the Jonker Street

A Place for Food Lovers

The Jonker Street is not only known for its cultural attractions and unique building architectures, but delicious foods and local delicacies as well. Being day or night, Jonker Street or Jonker Walk, the street is full of a number of shops and cafes selling a wide variety of foods and beverages. The Geographer Cafe located at the middle of the street is especially known among the foreign visitors, for its happening live bands on Friday and weekend nights. Besides, there’s also a shop called Jonker Dessert located diagonally opposite the Geographer Cafe, which is known for its Baba Nyonya delicacies.

Evolution of Jonker Streer

On 19 June 2000, the Melaka State Government had launched the concept of Jonker Walk, utilizing the richness of heritage values in this narrow antique street to realize a live touristy culture street.

Through this plan, the Jonker Street is changing its cloth to play the role of Jonker Walk, on every Friday evenings, Saturday evenings and Sunday evenings from 6.00pm to 12.00 midnight. During these specially located hours, traders are lining along the pedestrian street and setting up stalls to sell and display products associated with or reflect the cultural colours, such as antique copper coins, local and ethnic traditional food, unique arts and crafts, souvenirs, ornamental jewelry, and wooden clogs. For your information, Purple Flowers Handicrafts is one the pioneers of wooden clogs crafting in Melaka. Some of the local residents who own a house in Jonker Street, are also participating in this activity by converting the house into a premise, such as food stall, which allows visitors to enjoy the delicacies while gaining a chance to have a first hand experience on the unique architectural design.

History of Jonker Street

Jonker Street, Jonker Walk or Jalan Hang Jebat. While having variation, these names are actually referring to the same narrow street located in Melaka Chinatown. Jonker Street, houses some of the Melaka’s oldest dwellings or houses dating back to the 17th century, is also informally known as the antique street. The antique shops here are featuring artifacts from different periods of colonial rule – Portuguese, Dutch, and British. If you have sufficient time to stroll through the street with eagle eyes, you can easily hunt and bargain for the unique and valuable antique furniture, Chinese porcelain, brassware, cast iron beds, lamps, coins and money notes, as well as the priceless Buddha statues.