Carcosa

On 29th August 1898, a fancy dress ball was held by Sir Frank Swettenham for the opening of his official residence and named it ‘Carcosa’. It is a two storey mansion located on the hills of the Botanical Garden, overlooking the Sydney Lake which was named after his wife. Swettenham was eventually asked the origin of the mansion’s name. According to his letter to the Editor of British Malaya dated May 1936, the name of ‘Carcosa’ was inspired from a book called ‘The King in Yellow’ that he was reading when the building was completed. The building was adapted to a luxury hotel for many decades after it was returned to the Malaysian government in 1987 and in 2007, Carcosa was listed as a National Heritage by the Department of National Heritage.