The story of Doveton Clock Tower in Chennai

Of late, I’ve been researching the historical past of public clocks and clock towers in Chennai. And whereas I managed to collect materials on most, the one which I persistently drew a clean on was the Doveton Clock Tower. Most sources on the web have it that this was the primary clock tower of the town (which is appropriate) however have given it a date of early 1900s, connecting it in a single occasion with the inauguration of Ripon Buildings. And as standard it was Karthik Bhatt who drew my consideration as to why we could also be off by just a few many years.

“Look at how it’s such an instance of Art Deco,” he mentioned. “And if the primary in that model in our metropolis is the Oriental Insurance Building on Armenian Street courting to 1936 then this should have been constructed round that point and never earlier.” I puzzled as to why this by no means had occurred to me earlier than. Maybe you must be a Gujarati chartered accountant whose household has settled in Tamil Nadu for over 300 years to suppose that manner.

Armed with that piece of irrefutable logic, I searched additional and got here up with some attention-grabbing info. The clock tower might have Doveton prefixed to it now however round 50 years in the past, it was generally known as the Vepery Clock Tower, standing because it does on a triangle fashioned by Purasawalkam High Road and Jeremiah Road. The latter thoroughfare turns into Vepery Church Road and that was the place Rao Saheb MC Madurai Pillai (1880-1934) lived. In reality, the triangular park on which the clock tower stands was very seemingly his land.

Madurai Pillai made his fortune supplying manpower to the Kolar Gold Fields and was thought-about a frontrunner of his group that had a big resident inhabitants in that mining city. A staunch Vaishnavite, he did a lot for temples in South India. He additionally labored for the uplift of members of his group and commenced faculties in Kolar. The journal Dravidian too was funded by him. In politics he owed affiliation to the Justice Party and likewise prolonged assist to the Dalit chief, Rettamalai Srinivasan. His curiosity in civic issues noticed him turning into a councilor of the Madras Corporation the place he appears to have himself in his favorite subject – schooling.

The triangular piece of land on which the clock tower now stands begins showing in Corporation road information from the mid Nineteen Thirties. In these, it’s known as MC Madurai Pillai Garden Park although there isn’t a point out of the clock tower itself. But from the truth that Sylvan, a resort run by Madurai Pillai, was shut by, we will assume that this land was donated both by him, or in his reminiscence by his descendants, after his passing. And the clock tower appears to have then come up on it.

Surprisingly, there isn’t a file of the clock tower both at web site or in Corporation information. The absence of any commemorative plaque or a basis stone solely provides to the thriller. It might effectively have been a non-public initiative that was later remodeled to the Corporation. Of course, standing proud with letters of gold are current refurbishment plaques which one way or the other appear to have conveniently bypassed the reminiscence of Madurai Pillai himself! The park too doesn’t keep in mind him by identify. And no restoration appears to have paid any consideration to the clock itself, which stopped working fairly some time in the past. We must be grateful that the construction remains to be standing.

(V. Sriram is a author and historian)