Lifeline for Victoria hall

Published Date: 8-July-2009

G Saravanan

Chennai, July 7: DECKS have been cleared to restore the glory of the historic Victoria Public Hall as the Tamil Nadu government gave its administrative sanction to the Chennai Corporation’s multi-crore renovation proposal under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) few days ago.

“As the government sanctioned the project, we will now proceed with the tendering process for selecting the contractor to restore the historic building at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore,” Mayor M Subramanian told Express. Once the tendering process and identification of contractor are over, the work of restoring past glory of the weathered building would be completed within a few months time, Subramanian added.

A visit to the hall, which is sandwiched between historic buildings like Ripon Building and Chennai Central Railway Station, revealed that the stage, which played host to a number of eminent personalities including Swami Vivekananda, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Subramania Bharati and Sardar Patel to address large public meetings, is in a fully dilapidated condition. Wooden steps leading to balcony and sideways are fully damaged.

In October 1967, former Chief Minister C N Annadurai renovated the building. At present, the South Indian Athletic Association (SIAA) uses the hall and already gave their willingness to Chennai Corporation to handover it for renovation.An example of the Indo-Saracenic architecture, the Victoria Public Hall was designed by renowned architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm and built by Namberumal Chetty between 1888 and 1890.

According to available information, the proposal for such hall was first debated during a meeting in March 1882 at the Pachaiyappa’s Hall in George Town when some leading citizens of Chennai decided to construct a big hall for city’s recreational activities. Based on request, the (Madras) Municipal Corporation leased a 57-ground (3.14 acres) site in the People’s Park for 99 years from April 1, 1886.

Sir Ananda Gajapathi Row, the then Maharajah of Vizianagaram, had laid the foundation stone besides making a hefty donation of Rs 10,000. Contribution for the work poured in from different people and the list included the Travancore Maharajah, Mysore Maharajah, Puducottah Rajah, Ramnad Raja Bhaskara Setupati, Hadji Abdul Batcha Sahib and former Madras High Court Judge Muthuswamy Iyer.