Poor Victoria Public Hall. The path to its restoration and eventual use appears to be under fire. The latest in the saga of its conservation and rededication as a city centre is the sudden barrage of bad press it received in the last few days. Do we need so much (₹40 crore) to be spent on this building was the query raised. With elections to the State Assembly imminent, such questions have the potential to cause disquiet. But there can be no two answers. The city’s hall deserves this restoration. There are certain symbols that must be maintained, and this is one of them.
The irony is that V.P. Hall is among the few heritage restoration projects of the government which has a revenue model in sight. That is more than can be said about its predecessors. The University Senate House, which was the first significant restoration, in which I was involved as a mere fly on the wall, cost ₹11 crore, much of it crowdfunded. That was in 2007, and you can adjust the cost to the present values. Nothing came of that exercise, beyond giving examination papers a well-maintained home. Senate House was not put to the uses that were promised.
Explore Chennai’s Victoria Public Hall, which once hosted ballroom dances and film screenings
