The station, part of the Kelana Jaya LRT line, is named after Abdullah Hukum, a village head who came to unify the various races in his community.

Abdullah arrived in Malaya in 1850 from Kerinchi, Sumatra, at the age of 15. He had followed his father to these shores to trade and would later take up jobs in farming and construction.

He settled in Kuala Lumpur and a stroke of good fortune came his way when he was granted an audience with the Raja Muda of Selangor.

Abdullah was given a plot of land to establish a new settlement at Sungai Putih – what is now the area surrounding Jalan Bangsar.

The settlement, Kampung Sungai Putih, would later come to be known as Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum, with people of various races and ethnicities residing there.

As “penghulu”, or village head, Abdullah sought to unify and maintain peace among the Malays, Chinese and Indians of the settlement. In honour of this, he named the road by his house “Jalan Bangsa”, which Malaysians today know as Jalan Bangsar.

Abdullah was said to have held honour and decency close to his heart, ensuring that any wrongdoings in the community were dealt with appropriately.

He was later appointed as a “mudir” or head of a mosque in Pudu by the Raja Muda of Selangor, having been known as a scholar of Islam.

While his legacy was mostly centred on Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum, he was also said to have been among the pioneers to develop KL in the 1880s after opening up Pudu and Bukit Bintang for development.

A plant nursery at Bukit Nanas was also established under his authority.

Abdullah died in 1943 aged 108, leaving behind 18 children. A mosque, Masjid Jamek Abdullah Hukum, was also built in his name.

With glass and steel-clad high-rise condominiums and the KL Eco City mega development having replaced the thatched-roofed kampung houses, the Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum of today is a far cry from its original settlement.

However, Abdullah’s name and memory lives on in the train station.