
Central Market began as a wet market in 1888 and now presents Malaysian art, craft, and cultural products inside a preserved city building. Its reuse makes the structure itself part of the story, linking everyday food trade with heritage and creative commerce.
Guide preview
The building’s market role has changed, but its public purpose remains easy to recognize. Central Market opened in 1888 as a wet market serving Kuala Lumpur; today it houses Malaysian art, crafts, textiles, food, and cultural businesses.
Unlock the full guide with a travel pass.
Quick facts
- Central Market was built as a wet market in 1888.
- It now focuses on Malaysian culture, art, and craft.
- The building is listed as a national heritage site.
More places in Kuala Lumpur

Aquaria KLCC
Aquaria KLCC’s long transparent tunnel places visitors beneath a moving column of water and animals. The aquarium links exhibits from Malaysian streams and forests to coastal and ocean environments, inviting attention to habitats as connected systems.

ASEAN Sculpture Garden
Sculptures from across Southeast Asia sit within a landscaped garden beside Kuala Lumpur’s National Monument. The ASEAN Sculpture Garden brings public art into a park setting, where varied materials and forms invite slower looking among the trees.

Bamboo Playhouse
Bamboo Playhouse is a pavilion in Perdana Botanical Gardens built from a cluster of raised platforms and bamboo columns. Its design reinterprets the open village wakaf shelter as a playful public structure beside the lake.

Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery
Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery brings together galleries on money, economics, Islamic finance, children’s learning and Malaysian art. Housed in Sasana Kijang, it links the central bank’s history with the country’s financial and cultural development.

Batu Caves
Batu Caves is a limestone hill and Hindu pilgrimage complex north of Kuala Lumpur, with cave shrines set into the rock. The site is sacred to devotees, especially during Thaipusam, and also reveals the region’s deep geological history.

Berjaya Times Square Theme Park
Inside Berjaya Times Square, the theme park turns a multi-storey mall into a vertical playground. Its two zones, Galaxy Station and Fantasy Garden, set thrill rides beside attractions designed for younger visitors.