10 Farquhar Street, George Town. The Eastern opened on 15 April 1884, put up by Tigran Sarkies at twenty-three; the Oriental followed in 1885, and the two merged as the Eastern & Oriental in 1889. It is the first house of the Sarkies brothers and therefore the beginning of what became the first hotel chain in Asia — three years older than Raffles, which the brothers opened only after their Penang landlord raised the rent.
The house
Four Armenians born in Isfahan built it: Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak Sarkies. They read the same gap that made Raffles possible — the Suez Canal open since 1869, steamships bringing Europeans east for leisure, and almost no decent accommodation between Suez and the Far East.
At its height the E&O was described as the best hotel between Suez and the Far East. It sits inside the George Town UNESCO World Heritage core zone, inscribed in 2008. The Sarkies lost it with everything else in the 1931 bankruptcy that followed Arshak’s death; it trades still.
What distinguishes it
It is older than Raffles and less famous. The Eastern opened in 1884, Raffles on 1 December 1887. The house that proved the model is not the house the model is named after.
A rent rise created Raffles. The Penang landlord raised the rent on the Eastern; the brothers went to Singapore looking for somewhere better. The most famous hotel in Asia exists because of a lease negotiation in George Town.
Two hotels became one. The Eastern of 1884 and the Oriental of 1885, merged in 1889 — the same move the Astors made in New York eight years later with the Waldorf and the Astoria, and for the opposite reason: cooperation rather than rivalry.
It is inside a World Heritage site. George Town’s core zone, inscribed 2008 — one of very few working hotels in this Library standing inside a UNESCO inscription.
George Town is a heritage city and the E&O is part of the fabric rather than a retreat from it; the seafront it faces is a working one. A traveller wanting a beach resort should look to Batu Ferringhi, and one wanting the Sarkies story at its most polished will find it better preserved at Raffles.
Signature rooms and dates
Competitive landscape
Editorial note — The 15 April 1884 opening of the Eastern by Tigran Sarkies, the Oriental in 1885, the 1889 merger, the Penang rent rise that sent the brothers to Singapore, the 1931 bankruptcy and the 2008 UNESCO inscription checked against Wikipedia, the Sarkies Brothers entry, britishmalaya and South China Morning Post accounts; verified August 2026. ⚑ Sources differ on whether the brothers gave up the Eastern or the Oriental in 1889 before the merger.
Sources
What the entry rests on. Each reference records the specific facts it supports, so a disputed line can be traced to the account it came from.