the construction of a defensive stone canal began under probable directions from the British East India Company in 1804. The canal was approximately wide. Its base was constructed with bakau pillars and shorewood, a common construction technique of the time in Penang, and was filled with granite blocks. The canal was meant for agricultural and commercial uses, and it marks the furthest boundaries of George Town. The location of the canal, being at the very end of the town, was first noted by the Malay population under the name Ujong Pasir, and was later remarked by the local Chinese population in Hokkien as Sia Boey, both coincidentally carrying the same meaning of the 'end of the village' (other historians suggested Sia Boey might also mean 'a place to sell scrap, or cheap sundry') The canal was narrowed during the 1890s to a width of and a depth of . The region, populated since the mid-19th century, became a dense metropolitan area after the arrival of Chinese immigrants from the Hui'an region of Fujian, China. There were five major roads that occupied the site: Magazine Road, which runs within the city centre until the Magazine Circus; Penang Road, which runs from Farquhar Street to Brick Kiln Road (now Gurdwara Road); Prangin Road (now Dr. Lim Chwee Leong Road), which ran along the Prangin Canal; Maxwell Road, the northernmost road of the Seven Sisters Precinct; and Gladstone Road, which ran from the Magazine Circus, to the junction between Penang Road, Mcnair Street, and Carnarvon Street. In the 1880s, the Sia Boey Market was constructed, made of cast iron. A drinking fountain was also set up at the place. The region was also noted for the Magazine Circus (Magazine Junction), a roundabout converging on a junction of six roads, where the Gladstone Road, Macalister Road, Brick Kiln Road, Dato Keramat Road, Magazine Road and Penang Road coincide. The Malays called it Simpang Enam, carrying the literal meaning of 'the six-way junction'; the Chinese called it the Go Pha Teng, which means 'the five lamps', referring to the Municipal lamps set up at the middle of the junction. The junction was where the first traffic lights in Penang were set up in 1928. The area suffered great destruction during the Second World War. Between 10 and 13 December 1941, the city was bombed by Japanese bombers. The regions around Penang Road, which were filled