Central Market’s own store directory divides the complex into four areas, and the lot code on every shop listing says which one a business sits in: Ground Floor (G and DG lots), Mezzanine Floor (M lots), Kasturi Walk (KW lots) and the Annexe, whose own listings run 1.xx on its ground floor and 3.xx on its first floor. The ground floor of the 1937 hall carries the largest spread of permanent indoor shop units. The mezzanine holds the heaviest concentration of batik and apparel, along with the Central Market Food Court. Kasturi Walk is the covered open-air lane alongside the building, mixing snack stalls with small retail units. The Annexe is a separate building behind the hall with the strongest art and gallery focus, and it holds the ticketed Illusion 3D Art Museum.
The directory is organised by product, not by area, and that alone says something about how the market works. Food & Beverages is the largest category with around 45 listings, Arts & Crafts holds 30, and Batik & Traditional Wear 20, alongside Antique & Collectibles, Apparel & Accessories, Gift & Souvenir, Beauty & Personal Care, Gadget & Tech, Grocery & Convenience Store, and Services & Facilities. Several of those categories appear in more than one area. Food shows up on the ground floor, on the mezzanine, along Kasturi Walk and inside the Annexe. Apparel and craft goods appear both inside the hall and on Kasturi Walk. What separates the four areas is concentration and shop format, not a clean split of subject matter.
Central Market is open daily from 10am to 10pm. The complex lists no general admission charge; what carries a price is individual attractions and services inside it, and those are scattered across the buildings. The market sits inside the area covered by Kuala Lumpur’s old city centre, within walking distance of Masjid Jamek.
The Ground Floor Is Where the Permanent Shop Units Are Densest
The ground floor of the main hall uses G and DG lot codes and carries the broadest range of small permanent shops. Antiques and collectibles are well represented — The Heritage Gallery sits at G-76, and the category runs to silverware, older Chinese pieces and general collectables. Gift and souvenir units are mixed in among them: Treasure Shop at G-32 deals in fortune cats and feng shui decorations aimed at housewarming and business-opening gifts.
Handmade craft units sit on the same level instead of being pushed into a separate craft zone. Sakai at G-53 makes handwoven jewellery and dreamcatchers sold as home decor and car ornaments. Food retail appears here too, not only upstairs — Seranting at DG-18 sells Malaysian packaged goods including Milo, Ipoh white coffee, traditional cookies and chips, which is shopping for edible gifts, not a place to sit and eat.
This floor occupies the 1937 Art Deco building. The Malaysian Heritage Society blocked its demolition in the 1970s, and the adaptive-reuse renovation that turned the former wet market into a craft and culture market ran from October 1985 to April 1986, adding the air conditioning the hall still has. That conversion introduced themed cultural lanes named after Malaysia’s main communities — Lorong Melayu, the Straits Chinese section, Lorong India. Those names still belong to the building’s history and signage, but the current directory does not place shops by lane; it places them by floor and lot code, so a lane name will not tell you where a listed shop is.
Batik Concentrates on the Mezzanine, and So Does the Food Court
M lots sit on the mezzanine, and this is where batik and traditional wear cluster most tightly. Kampung Batik occupies M-51 and M-52 with casual, formal, party and traditional attire plus jewellery and hats. Berkat Han at M-42 specialises in modest Islamic fashion — ready-to-wear, printed and plain abayas, hijabs and scarves. The batik and traditional wear category runs to twenty listed businesses, among them Songket Sutera Asli, Galeri Seri Endon, Peranakan Heritage, Antakesuma, Estana Batik & Crafts, Malaysia Batik Design Fashion and Zakir Batik.
The Central Market Food Court is on this floor too, at M-11, serving local and international dishes at low prices. It is one entry among roughly forty-five food and drink listings spread through the complex, so the mezzanine is not the eating floor in the way a shopping-centre food court usually is. Cendol stalls, coffee sellers, bakeries and cafés trade on the ground floor, along Kasturi Walk and in the Annexe as well.
Batik is not confined to this floor either. Craft and textile sellers appear on the ground floor and along Kasturi Walk; the mezzanine simply carries the densest run of dedicated apparel units.
Kasturi Walk Is Outdoors and Mixes Snack Stalls With Small Retail
Kasturi Walk opened in 2011 as a pedestrianised, covered walkway running alongside the main building, with KW lot codes. It is a line of smaller units and kiosks instead of enclosed shops, and it is not air-conditioned, though the covering keeps rain off. That is the one physical difference that reliably separates it from the hall: everything else it sells overlaps with what is inside.
Snack vendors are prominent. Putu Bambu Tradisi at KW-02 makes putu bambu — rice flour coloured green with pandan, filled with palm sugar, steamed in bamboo tubes and served with desiccated coconut. Fruit sellers, cendol, coconut shakes and coffee vendors trade along the same stretch, including Kamila Coconut Shake and Nasir Fruits.
The lane is not food-only. Nala at KW-30 is a lifestyle brand selling hand-illustrated Southeast Asian pattern designs across fabrics, wallpaper, handbags, clothing, accessories, homeware and stationery. Beyako Collection at KW-28 makes personalised leather wallets and keychains that can be stamped with a name. Textiles and small gifts are available here as well as inside the hall, in a more compact and open-air format.
The Annexe Has Its Own Ground Floor, First Floor and Mezzanine
The Annexe is a separate building behind the main hall, opened in 2006 in a space that previously held a cineplex. It has its own vertical structure, which is the part most likely to trip up a visitor: the market has one mezzanine, and the Annexe has another.
Annexe ground-floor units are numbered 1.xx. Baim Zakaria Art Gallery at 1.09B does portraits, caricatures, murals, scenery, cartoons and illustration, sells ready-made pieces and offers live sketching during market hours. Kopi Dua Darjat, a coffee shop, trades at 1.14 on the same floor, so there is food and seating in this building as well as in the main hall.
The first floor uses 3.xx codes and is where the larger galleries sit. Art House Gallery occupies 3.02 and 3.03 with work by Malaysian, Chinese and Indonesian artists, Southeast Asian and Chinese antiques, and tribal and native art from Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Africa. Artist studios and gallery space showing contemporary Malaysian work take up much of the building, with rotating exhibitions, which puts the Annexe closer in character to Kuala Lumpur’s art museums than to the retail in the hall.
The Annexe mezzanine holds C-SPACE, where the KL Story Exhibition Gallery presents the city’s history and heritage. The Illusion 3D Art Museum is higher again, above the ground-floor units. Its own operator and Central Market’s attraction page give different lot codes and floors for it, so the reliable instruction is the building rather than the number: it is inside the Annexe, upstairs, and signposted from the ground floor.
What Is Ticketed, and When the Ticketed Part Closes
Walking into Central Market, the Annexe or Kasturi Walk carries no listed entry charge. The Illusion 3D Art Museum is the one attraction sold as an admission ticket. It shows 36 hand-painted pieces built to be stepped into and photographed, with WondAR augmented reality included at no extra cost.
Its hours do not match the market’s. The museum operator gives 10am to 9pm with final admission at 8pm, while the complex around it runs to 10pm. Arriving at Central Market at half past eight still leaves the shops and the food court open and the museum shut, which is the one timing detail worth planning around.
The paid element is not limited to that museum. DIY batik painting sessions let visitors paint their own piece and run daily. Chinese seal carving produces a personalised stone seal. Henna drawing operates as a walk-up service. Manjakaki offers traditional massage and foot reflexology, and fortune telling with Master Chin is listed among the market’s on-site services. These are individually priced, so a Central Market budget is built per activity, not per entry.
The directory also lists practical services alongside the shops — a money changer, a Tourist Information and Interaction Centre, and facilities including luggage lockers, a surau, lifts and disabled parking. Their positions are not published by lot, so they are worth asking about at the information counter rather than hunting for on a particular floor.
Sources
Central Market Kuala Lumpur (official website, store directory and attraction pages) — the four area labels and lot coding, individual shop locations and product descriptions, category listings and counts, Central Market Food Court location, Art House Gallery and KL Story Exhibition Gallery locations, on-site activities and services, opening hours
https://centralmarket.com.my/
Illusion 3D Art Museum (operator website) — number of hand-painted works, WondAR inclusion, opening hours and last admission
https://illusion3dartmuseum.com/
Wikipedia, Central Market, Kuala Lumpur — 1888 origin as a wet market, the 1937 Art Deco building, the Malaysian Heritage Society intervention and heritage status, the October 1985 to April 1986 conversion and the addition of air conditioning, the cultural lane names introduced then, the Annexe opening in 2006 in a former cineplex, Kasturi Walk opening in 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Market,_Kuala_Lumpur
