Jalan Tun Razak
This mighty artery of the city was always envisaged as a route to loop KL and hence its original name was Jalan Pekeliling or Circular Road. Its modern name is in honour of Tun Abdul Razak, the second Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Jalan Sultan Salahuddin
This major road connects Jalan Parlimen to Jalan Tun Ismail and takes its current name from the Sultan of Selangor who reigned over Malaysia from 1999 until his death in 2001. Back in 1960, however, this stretch of tarmac was named Swettenham Road after Sir Frank Swettenham, who served as the First Resident General of the country (1896-1901) and is credited with having made KL the capital of administration and setting up the KL-Klang railway.
Jalan Perdana
The road winding through the Lake Gardens now takes its name from the aforementioned lake (Perdana), but it originally commemorated Alfred R. Venning, a gentleman who served as the first Chairman of the Sanitary Board and proposed the idea of a public gardens. Venning Road was his testament within the gardens he envisioned, and he was also responsible for the city’s first golf course.
Jalan Cenderasari
The lengthy Jalan Cenderasari, which joins the Butterfly Park to the main road, used to have three separate names; part of it was called Hospital Road in reference to the nearby Tanglin Hospital, part was named Tanglin Road (for obvious reasons), while a final section was named Young Road. Sir Arthur Henderson Young, who gave his name to the third section of the road, served as Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements before being made British High Commissioner in Malaya in the early 1900s.
Jalan Dato Onn
Driving past the Tunku Abdul Rahman memorial takes you along Jalan Dato Onn, which is now named for the country’s third prime minister. Its first name was actually Brockman Road as a nod to Sir Edward Lewis Brockman, the British Chief Secretary (1911-1920) and the man who spearheaded the Town Planning Committee that was responsible for beginning to develop infrastructure within KL.
Jalan Travers
The mighty road that takes drivers from the Hilton KL to the end of Jalan Maarof takes its current name from Dr. Ernest Aston Otho Travers, who worked as the State Surgeon of Selangor from 1891-97. The former name was Damansara Road, so called after the nearby Damansara River, but Travers was deemed more worthy after his admirable reform of leprosy treatment in Selangor during his time in Malaya.
Jalan Tun Ismail
Driving towards the Putra World Trade Centre will take your car along a road that carries the name of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, a politician who held various posts, including Deputy Prime Minister under Tun Abdul Razak, and was praised for his reaction to the race riots of 1969. The road used to be named Maxwell Road after Sir William Edward Maxwell, a gentleman who held various posts in Malaya and founded Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut) in 1884. His name lives on in his book, A Manual of the Malay Language (1888).
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Source: The Expat February 2013
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