British Cantonment Town of Bangalore, 1914 Map

British Cantonment Town of Bangalore, 1914 Map

A 1914 vintage map of the once quaint little British Cantonment town of Bangalore (Bengaluru). It was far from what it first looked like when the British occupied the fort and the Pettah in 1791. Bangalore had metamorphosed into a quaint little cantonment city under the British by 1914.

Noticeable in the map are the Bangalore Fort and the Pettah, city railway station, residential and commercial areas, cantonment, parade ground, race course, Cubbon Park, etc. Also noticeable are the number of tanks and lakes which Bangalore had in abundance at that time. Many of these water bodies seemed to have now disappeared very likely due to the frenzied development and expansion of the city.

Cantonments were typically of East India Company origin, it referred to being a part of a town, catering exclusively for the military or civil services. Bangalore’s Cantonment was the outcome after the 4th Anglo-Mysore War in 1799. The cantonment was eventually established in the city in 1809. The local town and the cantonment area were usually separated by a buffer which in this case it was Cubbon Park.

Also read Planning Bangalore.

Did you know – Cubbon Park used to be a buffer zone between cantonment and  the town and locals had to pay a fee to cross from town to Cantonment. 

Past posts – Raja Ravi Varma’s Balamani Actress, 1902 Postcard., Imperial Service Cavalry Delhi Durbar, 1903 Photo., Aerial View of Rashtrapati Bhavan & Parliament, 1948 Postcard., Flying Boat/Seaplane Service In British India – 2 Rare Prints 1948.