Gove Building, Anna Salai

Vintage cars are indeed fascinating things and this spot on mount road has been attracting car afficionados since long. Among all the colonial buildings on Mount Road, the Gove building (earlier known as Cuddon Building) is a unique one because it was built to be used as a show room for Simpson and Co based in Madras.  Built in 1916 in  Indo-Saracenic style, this ornate brick double-storied  commercial  building was considered the “finest showroom in India. 
The name Cuddon building had close link with  George Cuddon of Simpson Co. When the building came up for sale, in 1943,  V.S. Thiruvengadaswamy (VST) bought the building and renamed it as Gove Building. 

The subsidiary company of VST Motors, VST Titanium Motors, is running  Mercedes-Benz 🚗 dealership in this building. So, the traditional  nostalgic link between this building with fine stone columns and the luxury cars continue unabated. The company made some changes inside the building and never touched the outer part to retain its heritage value.

In 2016, 🎉 the building completed its first centenary.

Source:📷The Hindu

Connemara Hotel

Lord Connemara is a name that is very familiar to Madras though he served only for a brief 3 years as the governor of Madras. The Connemara hotel then known as the imperial hotel was established in 1854 by T. Ruthnavaloo Mudaliar. Located at the intersection of Mount and Binny Roads, it stands on historic land – property of the Nawabs of Arcot. The Imperial was succeeded by The Albany in 1886, which in 1890 became the Connemara. The new owners were the brothers P. Cumaraguru and P. Chokalinga Mudelly
The Albany became Spencer property in 1890 and was re-christered the Connemara. It was much speculated that the name was given because the lady Connemara stayed there for several months after finding the lord in the company of other ladies at their home. They eventually ended up getting divorced when they returned back to England. But it was later clarified that the hotel was named after Robert Bourke, Baron of Connemara and not his ex-wife.

By the early 1930s, however, there was need for modernising and this was done based on designs from the architects’ firm of Jackson and Barker of the city. It was they who gave the hotel its art deco façade which is featured in this photo and which still survives.

In 1974, the Spencer’s International Hotels Limited, which still owns the Connemara, entered into a management contract with the Taj Group of Hotels, owned by the Tatas. In 1995, the Taj name was prefixed to the Connemara and so it remained till a couple of years back when, as part of a rebranding exercise by the Taj Group, the Connemara became part of the Vivanta range of Taj Hotels.

SOURCE: Madras Rediscovered |S.Muthiah

LIC, 1959

LIC building was the first skyscraper in Madras when it was built in 1959 with 15 stories at a height of 177ft. The building was built at a cost of ₹ 8.7 million in an total area of 1,26,000 sq ft. The building marked the transition from lime-and-brick construction to concrete columns in the region.

It was the tallest building in Chennai for over 35 years before being surpassed by the Hyatt Regency Building in Anna Salai and the Arihant Majestic Towers in Koyambedu, both in the mid-1990s. But LIC still happens to remain an iconic structure on chennai’s skyline and history.
M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettyar, the founder of Indian Overseas Bank and the United India Insurance, identified the location on Mount Road to construct an 18-storey building for his group’s headquarters and conceived the building in 1952. The building was designed by the London-based architects H. J. Brown and L. C. Moulin. The building was built on the lines of the UN Secretariat building in New York City.
The construction was completed in the year 1959 and the building was unveiled by the then Union Finance Minister Morarji Desai. The completed office building was to become the zonal and Madras divisional office of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and not that of the United India Life Insurance due to the nationalisation of the insurance service and all the assets were made over to LIC.

As tall as LIC” – a commonly used phrase emphasises how much of pride the people of madras associated with their beloved LIC building. Even today it is hard not to catch a glimpse of the building while passing through Mount Road.

SOURCE: Wikipedia.

Anna Flyover 1973.

Gemini Bridge is a name that is almost synonymous to Madras and now Chennai. A day spent in Chennai is not complete without driving past this dear old friend. People have dropped his surname, they fondly call him Gemini! Even though his name board says otherwise.
It is curious that the name Anna flyover didn’t stick despite C.N. Annadurai being one of the most celebrated leaders and chief ministers of Tamil Nadu. Gemini in Gemini Flyover refers to the Famous Gemini Film Studio which was the pioneer of Tamil Cinema that was once located in the present day Park hotel area. Sometimes it feels as though this bridge was Chennai’s middle finger to the other metropolitan cities considering that it was built way back in 1973 at a whopping amount of Rs. 6.6 million and opened to public on July 1, 1973 by the then chief minister Karunanidhi. It was the longest and one of the top rate flyovers at that time in India.

It was Chennai’s first step in to the big leagues and making its mark as a city with excellent infrastructure and that has led to the city being known today as the Detroit of India.Gemini Flyover, is a dual-armed flyover with a 24 ft access ramp on Gopathy Narayanaswamy Chetty Road to link up with the main flyover, just south of the intersection. An elliptical path called ‘Clover-leaf’ links up with GN Chetty Road at the ground level, through a longer span specially provided to relieve heavy traffic in the main flyover.
Today Chennai is criss crossed with flyovers and much more are bound to come up thanks to the ever growing population but Gemini flyover will always remain etched in the minds of the people.

Source: The Hindu

Rajaji Hall, c.1802

To most of us in this generation this building may be only known as the place where the mortal remains of political leaders are kept for the public viewing before their funerals but it has a long winding history which began in 1800.

Rajaji Hall previouly known as Banqueting Hall located in the Omandurar Government Estate was constructed in the year 1800-1802 by engineer John Goldingham to be used for social functions of the East India Company. .
The building is constructed on a basement of arched cellars and store rooms and is surrounded by a colonnaded terrace. The exterior of the hall is constructed in the 16th century Italian Manneristic style. The building is 120 feet long, 65 feet wide and 40 feet high and is enclosed by a gallery which had portraits of popular Anglo-Indian leadersand administrators including Edward Clive, Sir Thomas Munro and British monarchs George III and Queen Charlotte. The southern end is connected to the Government House by an array of steps. It is said to have been inspired from the greek temple Parthenon in Athens. The hall was also to commemorate the British Victory over Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.
The building was renamed Rajaji Hall in 1948 from Banquet Hall through a government order by the then Madras State. Since then, the space was a favourite venue for stately events, exhibitions and meetings.
In 2000s it was a sought-after location for film shootings to meetings, but in the last two or three years the hall has not been let out. Many conservation architects feel keeping a heritage building idle is unhealthy for the building and hope it will return to it’s past glory.

Source: The Hindu | Madras Musing