Clock Towers from Madras to Chennai

Please do not use the pictures without getting my permission, as these photos are copywritten. If you need one please write to me, email address is given below.

Hi everyone in the next commencing paragraphs I am going to take you through my experience [hope I don’t bore you with my laments] of the clock towers and how I came across them and my emotions, my moments in shooting these clock towers. I am not going to go deep into the history of the clock towers and who installed it and who unveiled it, there are enough of materials, and I have also shared the links where you can get those information.

To kick start the journey the first ever clock tower that I saw was that of Doveton Clock tower standing to bisect Hunters Road and Jeremiah Road [Built in 1900 - there is no history of which date it was unveiled to my knowledge] and I felt some kind of a feeling which I am hard to put in writing or for that matter explain in words as well. I was staying in an adjacent locality, so we had to come to Purasaiwalkam for shopping by default as it was happening back then and happening till date even after Covid – 19 & online shopping. I always had a question why this lonely clock tower standing in the middle of the road? What is the significance / purpose of it? this question was raised back in around 1988-1989 in my mind.

Years passed by and in the staring of 90s roughly around 1991-1993 is when I got to see the 3^rd clock tower. I was surprised to see this clock tower standing in the middle of Westcott Road which is now the famous Royapteha High Road where the government hospital stands. A question might have raised by you “Mate you have not mentioned about the 2^nd”, will come to that soon. Few liens back I have mentioned about the surprise you might wonder what is the surprise? well the surprise was how come a 3^rd clock tower came into existence, and again why in the middle of the road? And why not side of the road? Royapetaha Clock tower is well maintained right from the day that I have seen it, till this very day, whereas the other clock towers were not maintained, it became defunct and stood like an orphan child made begging on the road with lack of maintenance thanks to our “Madras Corporation & Tamil Nadu Electricity Board”.

I have read an article that these clock towers are jointly maintained by both Madras Corporation & Tamil Nadu Electricity Board of that locality. Madras Corporation maintains the park on which these clock towers stand and the clock to be maintained by the Electricity Board. You can question me how far you can prove this statement; well, I raised a complaint with Corporation regarding a clock tower and it got transferred to Electricity Board.

Coming back to the subject of clock towers, regarding the 2^nd Clock tower, when I fist saw it again back in the end of 80s, I was again aww stuck by the sheer presence of it in the middle of the road. I think I would have been gazing it at least good 45 minutes as we [mom, sister, and myself] were standing in the bus stand which was adjacent to it like a disgruntled employee whilst my father was happily reading his book as if nothing happened and engulfed in his own world. Back then there was no mobile hence killing the time was like ages for us, but we had the patience to do it. The clock tower was none other than Mint Clock tower and the bus stop was Mint Bus Stand. My dad made us stand in the bus stop for nearly 1 hour not knowing that there was a bus strike from that area to the destination we wanted to go. So, I had a long opportunity to see at this very clock which created a thought process in the back of the mind when I was 10 years old, me not knowing that I will be seeing again in my life time.

Till this moment according to me there are 3 clock towers in Madras/Chennai. My unusual attraction towards clock towers was ignited when I saw the movie “Saarpetta Parambarai [I don’t agree with the English writing of the Tamizh Words in this movie]. I was so much happy with the portrayal of the Clock Tower though it was an artificial set up, it was a very neat job with the mint bus depot next to it, which reminded me of my childhood day, “that day”.

Since the reignition started I googled about Mint Clock Tower to know more about it and how it looks currently. Normally before I venture to places to take pictures, I tend to google to see how it looks just to confirm what are the possible routes to reach places, where I can get a sweet spot to shoot as well to see pictures and take in to account of their angles so that I don’t just copy their angles, but then there will be time where you can’t avoid reptation if there are no options at all.

When I was googling about Mint Clock Tower came in another surprise, I came across a picture with 4 clock towers [ http://arunandprasad.blogspot.com/2016/05/clock-towers-in-chennai.html ]and an article written by a very renowned historian – Mr.V.Sriram [ https://sriramv.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/a-well-hidden-clock-tower/ ] another clock tower now this is 4^th according to my knowledge. This one stands on the side of the road on Strahams Road & it is called Patallam Clock Tower. When I googled for the pictures, I was there for a heart attack of how it was and how it is now. I went there and saw it and felt very sad of the maintenance of this clock tower. Like other clock towers it used to have a park around it and people from that locality used to walk in that park until 2016-2017, I guess. Behind the clock tower was the Binny Mills workers’ quarters [You can correct me if I am wrong] and this served as a timekeeper for these people as the Binny Mills is just a walkable distance from the clock tower. Apparently, the plot was sold to a private construction company and now there is no park and one side of the clock tower where the Binny Mills Quarters was is a high raise multi storied apartments, which has completely blocked the view. Other side is blocked by a tree, now remaining 2 sides where you can see from the other end of Strahans Road that is the junction where Perambur Barracks Road meets Strahans Road, and the other view is from Barracks Road meeting Strahans Road. People who live by the side of the road now uses this spot as a urine and passing their excretion. DTH or Internet cable wires hang on the clock tower and the clock doesn’t work anymore. People say that it has stopped working a decade a back, now you can do the math of which party was ruling, that is subjective to your opinion. This clock tower is crying for help as it has lost its park and the native people using the park to walk, lost the people who used it as a timekeeper for their work and other things in life. To me personally this clock tower would have been the most used because of the location, surroundings & nativity.

Just when I finished seeing the Patallam Clock Tower, taking few pictures and I was very much excited to write this very same blog/article back in September 2021 I bumped into an article stating there “was” a clock tower in Thiruvatriyur [there is no picture of it when I searched in google] and it was brought down to ground giving way for an apartment or whatever. You can also read an article about the clock towers which came in to existence in the year 1962 by Mr.Ramanujar Moulana talking about the clock towers for DT Next [ https://www.dtnext.in/News/TopNews/2019/12/31001316/1206780/Revisiting-times-gone-by-through-Chennais-clock-towers.vpf ] which i was not very much fond of it, as it is of post-Independence and of recent times. When I was interested at least to know where Thiruvatriyur clock tower stood, accidentally I bumped on google map to find that there is still another clock tower existing on Tondiarpet High Road. Now that would be 5^th clock tower, I was jumping in joy as well as kind of having doubts whether they have removed it or battered like Patallam Clock Tower facing an extinction. So took my 2-wheeler went in search and to greatest joy was happy to see that they just [October 2021] started to renovate the clock tower. I had to wait for eternity for them to complete the painting and make it work again, renovation work was stopped due to heavy rains from October end till November end.

Many heritages enthusiast say that when Mint Clock tower was revived in 2015 [thanks to the government back then when they were constructing the flyover] and the clocks towers colour was changed completely to what it was originally, “it was laughable & ridiculous renovation”. To all those people who said that I tell them please go ahead and see Tondiarpet Clock Tower it is a much more laughable & ridiculous renovation then the Mint Clock Tower. I would like to personally meet and appreciate [mordacious comment] the brainchild behind this renovation of completely changing the core value of the clock tower to be a laughingstock.

Now you would have read the blog, and some would have also criticized me for the chronological order, remember, this is written from my perspective. This is how it goes if you flip through history pages

Doveton Clock Tower - 1900 [1^st Clock tower]

Royapetaha Clock Tower – 1943 [2^nd Clock Tower]

Patallam Clock Tower – 1948 [3rd Clock Tower]

Tondiarpet Clock Tower – 1950 [4th Clock Tower]

Mint Clock Tower – 1957 [5th Clock Tower]

are the chronological order in which it was built. I also read that there were 16 clock towers in Madras / Chennai. Now we have now seen 5 clock towers through this blog, with an information of one clock tower being demolished giving way to private property or whatever is there right now. Question that I am bemused with or intrigued to ask historians is, where were the other 11 clock towers situated, is this the chronological order? As per my intuition, when the clock tower was built assuming the fact that Doveton being the 1^st clock tower, why would they take 32 years to build another one which is Royapetaha, why would they take another 16 years to build another 3 clock towers in the city. My gut feeling says that the questionable 11 clock towers would have been the ones which would have filled these gaps of 32 & 16 years. It is sad that we do not have a record of these missing 11 clock towers, if someone has any clue of these missing clock towers such as location where it stood or still standing and being hidden from public view please comment below or you can write to me at williamsatish25@gmail.com.