Dasaprakash Hotel

Much before Café Coffee Day and Saravana Bhavan established the concept of chain restaurants or franchisees. K. Seetharama Rao in early 1930s was the first to build a chain of hotels by the name of Dasaprakash in Chennai, Mysore, Udagamandalam and elsewhere in south India.
He gave up a lowly Government job in 1921 to join his brothers in running a restaurant in Mysore. He later established others in Madras and Ootacamund, and the chain moved to North India in the 1970s and, thereafter, to the USA.
Dasaprakash hotel built in the Art Deco style on the Poonamallee High Road went on to become one of the most iconic landmarks of the city when it was inaugurated in 1954. The hotel was known for its good Udipi fare, ice creams and comfortable rooms. Many leaders such as Nehru, Kamaraj, Annadurai and former US Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith have dined at the hotel and appreciated its quality.

When the hotel industry in India was trying to adapt itself to Western traditions, Rao made his hotels follow contemporary Indian style. But like many of its counterparts in the city, Dasaprakash hotel too crumbled in the changing economy and was demolished to give way for highrises But old timers will fondly remember their favorite ice cream joint.

Source: Sriram.V

Nambuperumal Chetty

Madras owes its beautiful building to many a British architects but one Indian name that can’t be missed is Thatikonda Namberumal Chetty.
(1885-1925)

The builder and contractor behind some of the most iconic buildings in madras. His first building contract was in 1887, the Victoria Public Hall on Poonamallee High Road, to Chisholm’s design. He shared a wonderfully long work relationship with Henry Irwin, the fruit of which can be seen across Chennai. The High Court and Law College, the Bank of Madras, the Victoria Memorial Hall and the Connemara Public Library. Later, under Irwin’s successor GST Harris, Namberumal was to build the YMCA Building on China Bazar Road. A couple of other buildings attributed to him are the Museum Theatre , section of the General Hospital and the Hindu High School in Triplicane.

Namberumal’s skill in procuring high quality raw materials such as timber and brick made him one of the most successful contractors in Madras. Interestingly Mr. Chetty was also interested in acquiring land and one point he owned most of chetpet. It is said that name Chetpet was derived from Chetty’s Pettai. In his hayday he owned 99 houses in madras and refused to buy the 100th one considering it to be bad luck. He also became the first Indian in Madras to own a car – his first vehicle being a French Dideon. His buildings still stand tall to tell the tales of the indian who made a mark in British Madras.

Source: Madrasmusings | Sriram.V
Photo: Internet.

Egmore Railway Station

Egmore railway station never fails to bring back nostalgic memories of the railway announcements and the weighing machines that told us amusing things. The place is now quite the maze because of its size and the sheer number of trains it operates today. If you don’t know your way around platforms you might get lost in here.

The Egmore railway station is 109 years old. It stands on a historic sitewhere the East India Company converted a standing choultry into a fortified redoubt. It later served as a sanatorium for soldiers and then in the 1800s as a Government Press. The Male and Female Orphan Asylums functioned from here when they moved out of Fort St George in the mid-18th Century.
By the late 19th/early 20th Century, a part of this property was owned by Senjee Pulnee Andy (1831-1909).This was acquired by the South Indian Railway Company as a suitable location for its northern terminus. The Egmore ­station cost Rs. 17 lakh to build and was completed in 1908. The design was by Henry Irwin and E. C. Bird. The contractor was T. Samynada Pillai of Bangalore who also ­constructed the Madura and Trichinopoly stations of the SIR. It was one of the early instances of usage of concrete in Madras. The structure also had another first – incorporation of Dravidian motifs within the Indo-Saracenic genre. The Egmore Railway station remained a pristine architectural structure complete with wooden staircases and mystical interiors until the 1980’s after which it had to give in to the population burst .The name Egmore is now synonymous to the smell of dried fish, the sea of people and a whole lot of chaos.

Source: Madrasmusings | Wikipedia
Photo: wiele & Klien, Madras.

Queen Elizabeth in Madras

Madras’s tryst with royalty dates back to 1961 when the  Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s visited Madras on February 19. It was the first visit by the reigning british monarch to the south.
People lined the streets from the airport at Meenambakkam to the centre of town in hundreds and thousands as the newspapers of that time reported. A general holiday was declared in both Madras and Bangalore
They were received at the Rajaji Hall in the erstwhile Government Estate by a high power delegation of statesmen led by C Subramaniam, the finance minister, Dr P V Cherian, chairman of the Madras Legislative Council, Dr U Krishna Rao, speaker of the legislative assembly, and R Venkataraman, minister of industries at that time along with the then Chief minister K.Kamaraj
Source:Timesofindia

The National Art Gallery

The national art gallery today may appear like a jewel in the rough amidst the construction rods and debris but the original building constructed by Henry Irwin is a testimony to the Indo- Saracenic style. It is one of the most stunning buildings at the Madras Museum complex in Egmore which houses one of the finest art and historical artefacts in the country.
It was considered to be one of the oldest art galleries in India, it had around 175 collections of paintings including Ravi Varma, Tanjore, Deccan, Rajasthan, and Mughal. Wood and ivory carvings, metal and bronze objects and British era portraits were among the other works of art housed there.

The building was constructed to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden jubilee and the foundation stone laid in 1906. The grand exhibition was hall built in ornate Jaipuri Mughal style, with characteristic pink sand stone and madras polished plaster and marble flooring. The Main entrance to the hall resembles that of Akbar’s palace at Fatehpur Sikri. The Victoria Technical Institute ran out of this building until it was taken over by the government to be used as an armoury during the Second World War and was later renamed as the National art gallery in 1951.

Years of weathering and unplanned construction activities in the neighbourhood, including high-raised buildings, led to deep cracks on the building. The architectural marvel is now being renovated by the Government of Tamil Nadu under the guidance of the heritage committee and the PWD.

Source: Madras Rediscovered | Madras Musing.