Chennai’s Queen Mary’s College loses a heritage building

The Beach House, located inside Queen Mary’s College (QMC) in Chennai, has been demolished. The colonial-style bungalow, with wooden balconies, a gable, a large portico, and Madras-style roofing, was demolished a month or so ago, to make way for what is claimed will be a “world-class auditorium.” With that, we have lost a building that had a direct connect with the freedom struggle.

Beach House, and its neighbour, Sankara Iyer’s bungalow, of which very little is known, came up late in the 1800s. They were built in a style sympathetic to two of their neighbours – the older Cappers House to the north, and the DGP Office to the south. Beach House itself was the residence of Sir S. Subramania Iyer (1842-1924). How the two bungalows became part of the QMC campus I have not yet found.