Victoria Student’s Hostel: Regal, but in need of attention

Old, weathered, yet upright and serving its purpose. That is the state of Victoria Student’s Hostel in Chepauk, Chennai. While it hasn’t lost its regal outlook, a closer scrutiny reveals that time has indeed taken a toll.

The hostel, coming under the Presidency College, stands on what was once called Chepauk Park, a triangular stretch of land on the west bank of the canal behind Presidency College. The landscape around it has changed significantly over the years. The Chepauk MRTS station has come up on its northern side while the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium is situated diagonally to its west. Chepauk has only grown busier by the day.

The entrance of Government Victoria Student’s Hostel at Triplicane, Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
S.R. Raghunathan

Inside, however, it is calm and peaceful. With the sea shore close by, there is no dearth of breeze feeding the sprawling open space available within the boundary walls. While some of the hostel inmates preferred a leisurely walk in the evening, many others indulged in their favourite sport – volleyball, badminton, or gully cricket – adjusting themselves to available spaces.

The old block was officially inaugurated on January 29, 1900 by Arthur Elibank Havelock, Governor of Madras. Chipped walls and peeling or flaking paint at the old block meet the eye as one steps inside the building. Some of the smaller buildings surrounding the main structure, too, stand dilapidated. The hostel’s name figures in an exhaustive list of heritage buildings in Chennai submitted to the High Court by the Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee in 2009.

The old hostel building was built in the quadrangle design, styled after an English college. The three-storeyed building has rows of rooms on three sides with the gate and the library space rounding off the fourth side. In its 126-year history, the hostel has had many stalwarts gracing its ramparts, including Sir C.V. Raman, Nobel Laureate Subramanyan Chandrasekhar and Field Marshall K.M. Cariappa. The two blocks (old and new) together house about 800 students enrolled into different undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Presidency College.

The plaque which contains the details of inauguration of the Victoria Student’s Hostel in Chepauk, Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
S.R. Raghunathan

Responding to a letter from the Madras Presidency the previous year, Denzil Ibbetson, the then Officiating Secretary, Department of Revenue and Agriculture (Land Revenue), wrote in March 1895 confirming the allocation of a “piece of land, of the estimated value of ₹37,540 to the Victoria Students’ Hostel Committee”. The foundation stone was laid on April 1, 1895 by Beibly Baron Wanlock, Governor of Fort St. George, in memory of P. Ranganada Mudaliar, Professor of Mathematics in the Presidency College. The construction was carried out by T. Namberumal Chetty and it was reported to have cost ₹2.25 lakh.