The Chepauk Palace Madras, 1900 Postcard
An old 1900 postcard of the Chepauk Palace in Madras (Chennai). Among the buildings on the Marina Beach area is the striking Chepauk Palace. Which belonged to the Nawab of Carnatic until 1855. This palace pioneered the Indo-Saracenic architectural style. The style later followed by Robert Chisholm, Henry Irwin, and others and which culminated in Lutyens and Bakers New Delhi.
The huge palace comprises of two distinct blocks that were built a hundred years apart. The northern, single-storey block houses the Humayan Mahal and the Diwani Khana Durbar Hall. The southern block, is two-storied and smaller domed, it is the Khalsa Mahal. By 1770, the palace grounds had a spread of 117 acres. In its glory days, the grounds of the Chepauk Palace stretched from what is now Bell’s Road to the beach, from Pycroft’s Road to the River Cooum.
The alleged treason on the part of the Nawab Umdat-ul-Umrah, Wallajah’s son and successor, was accused of conspiring with Tipu Sultan. This led to the second Lord Clive occupying the Chepauk Palace in 1801, after the death of the Nawab. When the last titular Nawab died in 1855, the British Government acquired the palace and turned it into a block of offices. Today it houses various government departmental offices.
Did you know – that elephants were once stabled in the Chepauk Palace grounds.
Past posts – Vintage Raja Ravi Varma “Laxmi” Oleograph., South Parade Road Now M G Road Bangalore, 1895., Dead Monarch And The New, Glimpse of British India In 1910., British Indian Railway Push Trolley – Old Postcard 1905.
