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

Zam Bazzar

A marketplace is usually the pinnacle of any civilisation. The whiff of spices, the chaos of bargaining and the wide range of colourful things are the soul of any city and it was no different for Madras. Some of Chennai’s old markets still retain vestiges of this, though they are very much on the exit lane of time . Apart from Moore market and Kotwal chavadii which are well known there are others located in the heart of the city such as the Zam bazaar in Triplicane. The Municipal Administration report published in 1880 lists about 30 private markets in the city. Building and running such markets were economically attractive and entrepreneurs such as Phiroz Muncherji Clubwala, `a well respected merchant of Madras’ invested in them. Mr. Clubwala owned the Zam Bazaar till his death in 1927. It is a huge single-storied building with stalls for various shops. Owned by a Trust, it sells a variety of items from kumkum to siddha medicine and every cut of fish and meat. Zam bazaar is quite the culmination of contrasting cultures. It now houses over 800 shops that deal in vegetables, meat, fish, rice and banana leaves. Most of the markets in the city are facing space issues due to the population and rampant construction. Many old markets have been demolished or remain unused. Cutting across various markets, traders and users think that simple measures will help. The construction of public toilets, better parking arrangement and building cold storage facilities can restore the nostalgic old markets which we walked to with yellow cloth bags.

SOURCE: THE HINDU / S.MUTHIAH.

Moore Market, 1900

Think of a market that sells old books and antiques at giveaway prices though they would cost a fortune outside. Put together with shops that sell everything under the sun  (Living and Non-Living) Dogs, kittens, little jackals, monkeys, slender lorises , star tortoises , an array of cosmetics and fashion apparel and all the latest gadgets and toys. Sounds like an imaginary one doesn’t it? But it sure existed in Madras right until a few decades ago.
It was the brainchild of Lt Col Sir George Moore, President of the Corporation of Madras in the 1890s. He was of the view that a market at a central location would solve two problems – get rid of the old and insanitary market off Broadway and provide a home for hawkers in Guzili Bazaar between Memorial Hall and Central Station. Moore market was thrown open to the public in November 1900. The architecture was Indo-Saracenic and the market occupied 40,000 sq ft. Based on an overall quadrangular design, the complex had an outer circle of shops which led to an inner circle of shops, through broad passages.
Moore market was a must visit place for every tourist who stepped in to Madras. It is considered as a mecca for second-hand books and gramophone plates. The sellers’ knowledge about books pertaining to science, humanities and fiction was impressive. There was nothing they could not get for you. Most importantly, every item could be bargained for. After shopping, people parked themselves in an open-air platform for a chat and a bite, Pressure on urban space began mounting in Madras in the 1980s.
The railways wanted land for expansion. And when the market rather conveniently caught fire in 1985, it was doomed. The vendors in Moore Market were hastily accommodated in a new building, which was built on land reclaimed by filling in the beautiful Lily Pond. But somehow it never caught on. The vendors vanished one by one and those that remain sell gimcrack goods.

Source: Madras Rediscovered | S.Muthiah

Dare House, 1940

The name Parry’s corner has always pulled out the curious George in me as a child because I strongly believed it was related to the only other Paris I knew in France. Even though they are totally unrelated the name “Parry’s” has always lent a classy outlook to the earliest neighbourhood of Madras- “The first line beach”. The name owes itself to one Thomas Parry who arrived in Madras in 1788 as a free merchant and established the Parry’s and Co in 1839 with his partner William Dare. Parry& Co went on to become one of the biggest business houses in south and even the country. And it all began in this corner where currently NSC Bose Road meets Rajaji Salai that the first Parry and Lane offices were started. It was here that the French commander Comte De Lally sited his artillery when he besieged Fort St George from 1758-1759. Later a garden house was constructed on the site and it was sold to Nawab Muhammad Ali which passed on to his successors Latour & Co before finally ending up with Mr. Thomas Parry. He re-built the house in the Palladian style , with godowns on the ground floor and offices on the third floor. As business grew, more godowns were added and, in 1864, a third storey was added. In 1938, all the buildings were pulled down to construct the mammoth 4 storied structure at an estimated cost of 1.2 mn Rupees. The building was constructed in the Art Deco style that combines traditional craft motifs with machinery age materials and shapes. When the building opened in 1940, the top storeys were leased to the American Consulate, the Madras Chamber of Commerce and the European Association. Even though the place is widely known as Parry’s Corner and the company as Parry & Co even today, the building was named as Dare House after his business partner William Dare because it would be unfair to the other enterprises which also occupied the building.

Source: The man form Madras S.Muthiah | The Hindu

Higginbotham

Higginbotham’s was started by Abel Joshua Higginbotham, who was employed as a librarian in the Wesleyan Book Depository in early 1840’s. When the store suffered heavy losses , the owners decided to sell their shop for a low price. Mr.Higginbotham purchased the business, set up his own store and called it “Higginbotham’s” in the year 1844. In 1891, Abel Higginbotham died, leaving his son C.H. Higginbotham in charge. “After his son took over, the bookshop shifted to where it is now, on Mount Road in 1904 to celebrate its diamond jubile”. By the beginning of the 20th century it had become the official book supplier for the government and its institutions and had a list of important customers, right from the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, the last Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and S. Radhakrishnan. In 1949, S.Anantha ramakrishnan of the Amalgamations Group took over the bookstore from the Higginbothams. It still remains as the go to place for book afficionados and heritage lovers.