Loke Mansion is a handsome "arts-and-craft" heritage villa facing the sea on prime real estate in Gurney Drive, Penang. It is one of the heritage sites in Penang threatened by surrounding developments, so I am documenting it for AsiaExplorers so that everybody can get to appreciate its heritage value.
Loke Mansion was built by Alan Loke, the son of tycoon Loke Yew, around 1924-25. In keeping with the habit among the well-to-do at that time of building ostentatious homes and giving them English-sounding names, Loke Mansion was originally called Chatsworth. The northern seafront where it was located, which is today Gurney Drive, was then called North Beach.