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Atkinson Clock Tower, Kota Kinabalu - Things to Do at Atkinson Clock Tower

Things to Do at Atkinson Clock Tower

Complete Guide to Atkinson Clock Tower in Kota Kinabalu

About Atkinson Clock Tower

Atkinson Clock Tower stands on a low rise above Kota Kinabalu's waterfront. It's a slender white-and-cream wooden structure that looks almost too modest for its history. Built entirely without a single nail in 1905, it's one of only three structures in the city that survived the Allied bombing of British North Borneo in 1945. You can sense that survival. It leans slightly into the trade winds, weathered but stubbornly upright. The tower was commissioned in memory of Francis George Atkinson, the first district officer of Jesselton (as Kota Kinabalu was then known), who died of malaria at twenty-eight. His mother paid for it. There's something quietly affecting about that when you stand at the base looking up at the four clock faces. You'll likely arrive from the noise of Signal Hill Road below, climbing a short set of concrete steps lined with frangipani trees that drop their cream-and-yellow blossoms onto the path. The smell hits first. It's that sweet, slightly powdery frangipani scent mixed with the salt tang drifting up from the harbour. Up top, the tower itself is smaller than photographs suggest, maybe fifteen metres tall, painted in heritage white with green wooden louvres on the upper sections. The clocks still work. They chime on the hour with a tinny mechanical sound that carries surprisingly far when the traffic noise dies down at dusk. It's not somewhere you'd linger. But it anchors a walking tour of old Jesselton. Locals jog past in the early morning. You'll often see couples taking wedding photos against the backdrop of the South China Sea visible through the casuarina trees. Worth noting: there's no entrance, no museum, no guide, just the tower, a small plaque, and the view. That simplicity is probably the point.

What to See & Do

The four clock faces

Each face still keeps reasonably accurate time. The original mechanism, replaced once in the 1980s, ticks audibly if you stand close during quiet moments. The Roman numerals are hand-painted. You can see where the paint has been touched up over the decades in slightly different shades of black.

Nail-free wooden construction

Look up. At the eaves and corners, the entire structure is held together by wooden pegs and mortise-and-tenon joints, a technique borrowed from traditional Borneo longhouse builders. Now run your hand along the lower beams. You'll feel the smoothness of timber that's been weathered by 120 years of monsoon rain.

Memorial plaque to Francis Atkinson

Set into the base, the brass plaque has gone green with verdigris in the humid air. The inscription is brief. Edwardian in tone, it mentions his death from 'Borneo fever', the polite colonial term for malaria that killed roughly half the early British administrators here.

View toward the waterfront

From the small terrace beside the tower, you'll see the orange roofs of the old Jesselton Point ferry terminal, the cranes of the modern port, and on clear days the silhouette of Gaya Island floating in the haze. Late afternoon turns it gold. The window is about twenty minutes before sunset.

Surrounding heritage trees

The casuarinas and frangipani trees around the tower are nearly as old as the structure itself, planted by the British in the early 1900s. Their root systems have buckled the concrete paving in places. The casuarinas make a soft hissing sound when the sea breeze comes through. Locals call this 'the whispering pines'. They're not pines, of course.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

The tower grounds stay open 24 hours with no gates or restrictions. That said, the climb up the steps is poorly lit after dark. Skip it after about 7pm. Safety concerns here are unrelated to the tower itself.

Tickets & Pricing

Free. No ticket booth, no guide, no donation box. It's a public heritage monument maintained by the Sabah state government.

Best Time to Visit

Early morning around 7am for the cleanest light and the cooling sea breeze. Or the half hour before sunset, when the tower glows warm against the sky. Midday is brutal. There's almost no shade at the top, and the white paint reflects the equatorial sun straight back at you. Skip weekend afternoons. Wedding photographers tend to monopolise the best angles then.

Suggested Duration

Twenty to thirty minutes is plenty. It's a stop, not a destination. Best combined with the Signal Hill Observatory walk just above (another ten minutes uphill) for a fuller hour of old Jesselton sightseeing.

Getting There

The tower sits on Jalan Bukit Bendera, a short uphill walk from the Kota Kinabalu waterfront. From the city centre or Gaya Street, you're looking at a 10-15 minute walk that gets noticeably steep in the last 100 metres. Manageable for most. Bring water if it's hot. Grab rides from anywhere in central KK are budget-friendly and will drop you at the base of the steps. Ask for 'Menara Jam Atkinson' and most drivers will know it instantly. From the airport, a taxi takes about 20 minutes outside rush hour. There's no dedicated parking. But you can usually find roadside spots along Signal Hill Road if you're driving yourself.

Things to Do Nearby

Signal Hill Observatory Platform
A five-minute walk further uphill gives you the panoramic view that Atkinson Tower itself doesn't quite offer. You get the whole arc of KK waterfront, the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman park, and Mount Kinabalu on clear mornings. Pairs naturally with the tower. Treat it as a single uphill loop.
Gaya Street
The historic shophouse district sits at the bottom of the hill. Best visited Sunday morning. That's when the famous market takes over the entire street. Walking back down from the tower drops you straight into it.
Sabah Tourism Board Building
Another of the three pre-war survivors. This elegant 1916 colonial building sits a few blocks east. Worth pairing. Together with Atkinson Tower, it gives you two-thirds of everything that survived 1945.
Jesselton Point Waterfront
Down at sea level. This is where ferries leave for the offshore islands and where you'll find seafood restaurants that fill up at sunset. The downhill walk from Atkinson takes about 12 minutes. It ends with a cold drink overlooking the boats.
Australia Place
A short walk south sits a small commemorative square honouring the Australian forces who liberated North Borneo. Locals usually skip it. The contextual link with Atkinson Tower's wartime survival, however, makes it more meaningful as a paired stop. Worth pairing.

Tips & Advice

Time your visit for the top of the hour if you can. Hearing the original clock mechanism chime is a small but memorable moment, one most rushed visitors miss entirely. Don't rush past.
Wear shoes with grip on the steps up from Signal Hill Road. The concrete gets slick after the afternoon thunderstorms that roll through Kota Kinabalu most days from May to November. Grip matters here.
Bring a wide-angle lens, or step well back across the small lawn if you want the whole tower in frame. The site is tighter than photos suggest, and most visitors end up with awkwardly cropped shots. Frame carefully.
Combine it with the Signal Hill walk in one go rather than treating them as separate trips. The uphill effort only makes sense if you're getting both viewpoints out of it. Pair them up.
Skip the visit entirely during heavy rain. There's no shelter at the tower, and the steps become a small waterfall within minutes of any serious downpour. Wait it out.

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