Menteng and Colonial Jakarta in Jakarta
Part of the Jakarta travel guide — see every topic in All Jakarta Guides.
Menteng was planned from 1910 as Batavia's first modern residential suburb, laid out on garden-city principles with wide tree-lined streets, generous plots and low-rise villas in a distinctive tropical Dutch modernism — deep eaves, tall shuttered windows, white stucco. It is now central Jakarta's most expensive neighbourhood, home to embassies, ministers and the presidential family, and it is the only district in the city where walking is genuinely pleasant.
The architecture
The villas along Jalan Imam Bonjol, Jalan Diponegoro and Jalan Teuku Umar are the best surviving examples of Dutch colonial residential design in Indonesia: low, wide, heavily shaded, with the deep verandas and ventilation grilles that a tropical climate requires and air conditioning made optional. Many are now embassies or offices, which has preserved them. The Bappenas building and the Menteng Immanuel Church, a domed neoclassical Protestant church from 1839, are the civic landmarks. Conservation rules apply but are unevenly enforced.
The streets
Menteng is walkable in a way essentially nowhere else in Jakarta is: real pavements, tree cover, low traffic and short blocks. Taman Suropati, at the junction of several avenues, is a small park where music students practise on Sunday mornings. Jalan Surabaya is the antiques and flea-market street, running a few hundred metres of stalls selling brass, vinyl, wayang puppets, coins and "colonial" bric-a-brac of highly variable authenticity — bargain hard and assume reproduction.
History here
The Proclamation of Independence was made on 17 August 1945 at a house on Jalan Pegangsaan Timur in Menteng; the building is gone and the site is marked by the Proklamasi Monument. Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi, in the villa where the text was drafted overnight, is small, free and genuinely moving. Barack Obama attended primary school in Menteng in the early 1970s, and the school still stands with a small statue outside it — a minor curiosity that draws a steady trickle of visitors.
Eating and practicalities
Menteng holds several of Jakarta's long-established restaurants, including the classic Indonesian and Dutch-Indonesian rijsttafel places, plus hotel bars and a growing cafe scene. It is on the MRT at Bundaran HI and within walking distance of the National Museum and Merdeka Square. Sunday morning, with Car-Free Day on Sudirman a few streets away and the musicians in Taman Suropati, is the best time to be here. The area is safe and quiet at any hour.
Menteng and Colonial Jakarta at a glance
| Laid out | From 1910 — Batavia's first planned garden suburb |
|---|---|
| The look | Tropical Dutch modernism: deep eaves, shutters, verandas |
| Why it survived | Embassies and ministries occupy most of the villas |
| Flea market | Jalan Surabaya — antiques of variable authenticity |
| History | Independence proclaimed here, 17 August 1945 |
| Best time | Sunday morning — musicians in Taman Suropati |