Finding heritage in a concrete jungle

Finding heritage in a concrete jungle
INTACH has listed 90 buildings in Ulsoor as ‘heritage structures’. It hopes the government will help conserve these buildings


Number 36 (old No. 26), Palani Mudhaliar Street, Ulsoor. Age of the building – 100 years; the house is built on a rectangular plot, with a well and an open area at the rear, a courtyard towards the front and a thothi (open water tank) in the middle. The thothi is covered with a skylight and the house has a jagli (sitting area) in front. So goes the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s (INTACH) description of the building in its inventory, Ulsoor Heritage listing.

For all the rampant development in the city, there are still homes with courtyards, wooden columns, mud structures, tiled roofs and bamboo and clay ceilings, stone quoins at the corners and brick masonary. INTACH has labelled about 90 buildings in Ulsoor — one of the oldest, traditional areas of the city — as “heritage structures”.

The heritage tag was not applied lightly. It came after a six-month survey that included street-wise visits, identification of old buildings, physical inspection of aged buildings, conversations with owners and status of the structure. Of the 90 building, about half are residences. The others are commercial buildings, schools and choultries.

INTACH had compiled a list of heritage buildings in the city in the 1980s, but since many of those buildings were lost to development, it decided to the revise the list. The massive project began in December last year and was carried out by a team led by a conservation architect. The finishing touches to the list were applied recently.

Erstwhile Halasuru is spread over 123 acres. History suggests that a jackfruit (halasina hannu in Kannada) orchard thrived near the lake and the area came to be called Halasuru. During the British rule, the name was anglicised to Ulsoor. The first British military station was set up in Halasuru in 1807.

Although buildings usually have to be at least 100 years old to qualify for the heritage tag, age wasn’t the only factor for INTACH. Meera Iyer, co-convenor of INTACH said that besides age, buildings also had to have architectural, religious, associational, historic, intangible, cultural and natural pre-requisites to qualify as a heritage structure. Prominent among heritage buildings are Someshwara Temple, Ankamma Choultry, Corporation school, Murphy Town and the Yogeshwaranandaswamy mutt.

No. 36, Palani Mudhaliar Street, is a 100-year-old private property. It is built on the vernacular style of architecture — an informal, functional style common in rural areas. It was built with locally-available materials and shows off intricate variations in local social customs and craftsmanship. About 15 years ago, D Subramani, the owner, changed the roof tiles to Mangalore tiles, but the house has seen little renovation since it was built.

Subramani, who is into the electrical business, purchased the house in 1942 for Rs 3,400. The 30- square house is built on a 30ft by 103 ft plot. “It will cost us a lot if we take up renovation works,” Subramani said. “Things have started falling apart, but I am old now (he is 67) and cannot maintain the house. It’s also difficult to find labour to do such intricate repair work. I am preparing for my daughter’s wedding. After the wedding we may enter into a joint venture with a builder, bring down the building and construct apartments.”


The Murphy Town corporation school was built in 1924 on the colonial style of architecture. It has a high, pitched roof with wooden framework and Mangalore tiles. The beam in the verandah is supported by stone brackets along with walls that are of brick masonry. The floor is of cuddapah stone. The significant features of the building are the roof framework, stone brackets and stone quoins.

Similarly, the 113-year-old Yogeshwaranandaswamy Mutt on Ramakrishna Mutt Road, also built on the colonial style of architecture, has eye-catching arcade with dressed stones and twin columns. The rectangular building has rooms extending on either side and while the first floor is built of brick and mortar, the floor of the main hall and shrine has been redone in marble.


The inventory will be passed on to the government so that these buildings are protected. In 2005, the government amended the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act toinclude definitions of a “heritage building” and “heritage precinct”. Although the Act defines a building as heritage if it has architectural, aesthetic, historic or cultural values so far only public/government buildings have been brought under this legislation. Private properties are rarely declared as heritage — perhaps the only exception is the bungalow of RK Narayan in Mysore. Sathya Prakash Varanashi, head of INTACH, Bangalore chapter, claimed a proposal to amend the KTCP Act with regard to heritage buildings was much-discussed, but it hasn’t moved forward. “I was a part of the committee in 2011 that discussed bringing in major amendments to the KTCP Act to give more teeth to the legislation for declaring private properties as heritage structures,” Varanashi said. “The proposal included working out modalities, dealing with the property owners and restoration. But, nothing has come through so far.”
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