Atkinson Clock Tower was built in memory of Francis George Atkinson – the popular first District Officer of Jesselton during the British North Borneo Chartered Company Administration.
Francis George Atkinson died at the young age of 28 after he succumbed to a tropical disease.
The Tower remains until now as Kota Kinabalu city’s only two remaining pre-war relic. The other being the two storied white building (now Sabah Tourism Board office) at Jalan Gaya which was built in 1916 as government printing office.
The Atkinson Clock Tower is currently managed by the Sabah Museum under its Antiquity and History section and until today, it still serves to keep the city’s time.
It stands prominently on a bluff along Signal Hill Road adjacent to the old Police Station. It can be easily spotted by road users over there.
Built in 1903, this all-wood, no-nails structure Tower has the distinction of being the oldest standing structure in the whole of Sabah that survived the destruction of Jesselton town during World War II.
– Kota Kinabalu Travel Guide
