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Suffolk House is located some four miles west of George Town on the banks of the Air Itam River (Black Water River in the Malay language).

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An earlier building served as the residence of Francis Light, the founder of the British settlement on the Prince of Wales Island, now known as Penang Island.

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Following Light's death in 1794, and with Penang becoming the fourth presidency of India in 1805, a newer Suffolk House replaced the original house, assuming multiple roles for the island's governors under British rule . In the late 20th century it fell upon hard times and was derelict for a number of years with even talk at one stage of the house being knocked down, perish the thought, but today it has been given a new lease of life with a marvelously done restoration.

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The house and the estate it is built on, the Suffolk Estate, was named after Suffolk County in England. Light was born in Dallinghoo, Suffolk in East Anglia.

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The original house was simply a humble timber-and-attap garden house, fashioned in a simple Anglo-Indian Garden House style common in British India. The current Suffolk House is a detached double-storey building of Euro-Indian Georgian styling.

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There is still some dispute over when exactly Suffolk House was built, but it is most likely that construction began in 1809, or there abouts.

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However, Light's will indicates that he bequeathed his common law wife, Martina Rozells, "the pepper gardens with my garden house, plantations and all the land by me cleared in that part of this island called Suffolk...", referring to either the house or estate, indicating that either or both assets already existed when Light died.

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This is one extraordinary house. An English National Trust type property, built by a small river on the Malaysian Island that is Penang. A very other worldly place to be.

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