Vivanta by Taj Connemara, the city’s iconic 125-year-old heritage hotel, will close down for a year from May 10 for a comprehensive makeover aimed at recreating the grandeur of its early past.
The plan is to reopen it as an intimate high-end luxury hotel that takes guests back at least a century when they walk through the doors. This is a radical departure from its last makeover, done in 2005, when the hotel was re-designed to target trendy young hipsters with the launch of the loud Distil bar and chic pan Asian restaurant, Hip Asia. Although the team is being determinedly close lipped about what exactly it will look like a year from now, it is likely that there will be some reshuffling as the focus moves towards recreating and rediscovering old menus and cuisines, which could mean that only the Verandah and Raintree restaurants will survive. The rooms, lobby and banquet halls will also be refurbished to look more like they once did – but with a distinct dash of luxury.
General Manager Ahmar Siddiqui describes the renovation as an “extensive enhancement”. It will be done by Structwel Designers and Consultants Private Limited (a Mumbai based Engineering consultancy, which also restored the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai). Promising that there will be no major changes to the structure, Siddiqui says the “planned shut down” is necessary because of the extensive work needed to “conserve and preserve the entire architecture of the hotel”. No additional buildings are planned on the 4.2 acre property and the existing greenery will remain untouched, including their dramatic old Raintree and two sturdy Nagavalli trees.
A part of Chennai’s history since the early 19 th Century, the property was originally a house bought by John Binny from The Nawab of Arcot in 1799. T. Somasundara Mudaly then acquired it, turning it into the Imperial Hotel in 1854. In 1886, it was rechristened ‘The Albany’. It was named The Connemara in 1890, after Lord Connemara, Robert Bourke. Although the building is purportedly 200 years old, dating back to the original garden house, Chennai historian S. Muthiah says nothing of the old structure remains. “So the oldest part of the hotel today dates back 125 years.”
Spencers, which bought the property in 1891 leased it to the Taj group for 100 years in 1974.
BOX
1. After the 1937 renovation, estimated at Rs. 5,75,000/, a hotel press release boasted about its “cool refreshing air delivered through the newest air-conditioning apparatus”
2. The first published tariff of the hotel for a room on single occupancy was Rs. 10 with breakfast and Rs. 17.80 for a room with all meals
3. The hotel’s deluxe wing was almost totally destroyed on Friday the Thirteenth (February 1981), when a fire broke out at Spencer’s building. The high wall in between saved the hotel
4. The piano in the lobby dates back to 1922 and used to be played in the ballroom in the post war days in the evenings. It’s still played on weekdays in the lobby
5. The Nagavelli well of the hotel never dries up even when all other wells in Chennai dry during the peak of summer
6. The stone pillars on the Raintree pathway and wooden carvings embellished on the grand staircase wall date back to the 16th and 17th
century temples of Mahabalipuram
QUICK HISTORY
The Imperial hotel was established in 1854
It was succeeded by Albany in 1886
Established as The Connemara in 1890
Acquired by the Taj Group in 1976-77
Named The Taj Connemara in 1995
Titled Vivanta by Taj Connemara in 2010
EOM
Chennai’s iconic 125-year-old hotel to shut down for a year for complete makeover
