Over the recent decades, the former fishing village has been transformed into an upper class residential suburb of George Town, with high-rises such as Straits Quay lining the coast.
The area had already been inhabited for decades prior to Captain Francis Light's founding of Penang Island in 1786. Tanjung Tokong was believed to be the site of the first Chinese settlement on Penang Island. Up until the 1970s, Tanjung Tokong was a fishing village; rapid urbanisation soon followed, with residential high-rises now lining the coast.