Madras Central Railway Station & Buckingham Canal, 2 PCs 1900
Two rare 1900 postcards of the Madras Central Railway Station and the Buckingham Canal. One is an oilette. Both show the famous Madras Railway Terminus, and the Buckingham Canal (earlier Cochrane’s Canal), which passes under an age-old stone bridge, the Elephant Gate Bridge.
In the background is South India’s ever-popular railway station, and in the foreground, the once pristine Buckingham Canal. That is sadly a carrier of black sewage water today.
This waterway was once used for irrigation and transportation purposes, and quite remarkably, boats were plying up to the 1960s-70s. It was originally called Cochrane’s Canal, named after its principal financier, Basil Cochrane (1753-1826). A supply contractor for the British Navy in India. It was later, for a short period of time, known as Lord Clive’s Canal.
The railway terminus was designed by George Hardinge, a British architect, in both Gothic and Romanesque style architecture. Another British architect, Robert Chisholm, added the clock tower, which is one of the main attractions of the building. Chisholm is said to have pioneered the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture during the British era in India. Click image to enlarge.
Read more Chennai Central railway station.
Did you know- the Buckingham Canal was once gridlocked with the city’s other rivers and canals. If it were still sustained, it could have contained the floods and offered clean transportation to the city.
