:: Chennai Factoids ::
:: Name reasons behind famous roads / streets in Chennai ::
:: MOWBRAY'S ROAD - ALWARPET ::
It has been quite a long since I posted about the name reasons. Now I am back, and today I am going to share the name reason behind the "MOWBRAY'S ROAD" in Alwarpet. Many of you might wonder on seeing this name and eager to know where it is located. Those who passed by the Music Academy should have known about this road. Yeah am talking about the same road where Music Academy is located. This road has been renamed as TTK Road now. It is good to have a old name board with the name "MOWBRAY'S ROAD" near Music Academy. It is there exactly in the Music Academy Bus Stop. This is one such busy road which connects major locations - Triplicane, Royapet, Mylapore and Adyar. Also, it has two famous halls (SABHAs) to its credit - Music Academy & Naradha Gana Sabha. Before talking much about the road, let me post about the person behind this road name.
Mowbray's Road is named after Mr. George Moubray who owned the city's first beautiful garden house "Moubray's Cupola" / "Moubray's Garden" on the banks of Adyar river in 1780s for an annual rent of Rs. 800/.
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| Madras Club in the place of Moubray's Cupola. Image Courtesy: Skyscrappercity.com |
The house was a spacious colonial bungalow set in 105 acres of parkland and later became the Adyar Club in 1890 and now it has been taken over by Madras Club in April 1963.
Moubray arrived in Madras in 1771 and was the first Accountant of Fort St. George, later became the Accountant General and a member of the first Board of Revenue in 1785.
The Moubray's Road, the long road leading from Royapet to Moubray's
Gardens (which is now Madras Club) was a cart-track in 1798.
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| TTK Road (Mowbray's Road) - Earlier and Now |
By 1816, it was a well-kept thoroughfare, avenued for the greater part of its length. And now it is renamed as Thiruvallur Thattai Krishnamachari Road (TTK Road).
Landmarks in & around Mowbray's Road (TTK Road) :
- Music Academy
- Naradha Gana Sabha
- Focus Art Gallery
- Hotel Raj Park
- Spoonbill restaurant
- Park Sheraton / Adyar Gate Hotel
- New Town Cafe
- Univercell Head Office
- Chettiar Hall
- Ethiraj Marriage Hall
- Crossword book store
- Lifestyle and many more
Locate Yourself:
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| Source: Google Maps |
Source: Vestiges of Old Madras by Henry Davison Love, Under the fire star Blog, The Hindu, British Council website etc.,
Interesting information. Though we passed that road often, we never analyzed the story behind the name!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sandhya mam.... Yeah and I have many such stories of roads in chennai in my blog ....
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ReplyDeleteRelating background information to the roads and localities is a very interesting and difficult work esp. with passing decades they may get lost. Kudos to your interest in this valuable aspect a city's history. I have an 1895 book, 'Glimpses of India' [our family archive] in which a picture of Mowbray Road is shown, similar to the one you have here. Do write to me if you want to see/use. d i n a k a r 58 AT y a h o o DOT com.
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