Even as the Heritage Act proves as elusive as ever, with the debate shifting from Court to Committee and the Government remaining non-committal, Chennai is losing its heritage buildings and pretty fast at that. The latest reports are disturbing, to say the least.

It is reliably learnt that Conway House, located inside the St George’s School on Poonamallee High Road, will soon be pulled down. The building in many ways represents the history of Western education in India. The residence of Conway, a John Company servant, it was purchased in 1819 by the Military Female Orphans Asylum which ran a school there till it was shifted to Lovedale. The St George’s School moved in in 1904 and has operated from there ever since. In later years with the coming up of other buildings, this became a dormitory. In recent years, with the mistaken idea that an old building is better demolished, the structure was poorly maintained and now the plan of demolition is more or less certain. The school claims that it has obtained a certificate of structural weakness from experts, but given several recent instances where strong buildings were certified as being worthy of demolition, such documents need to be reviewed by a larger circle of experts, especially those with expertise in conservation of heritage buildings. At this point of time, the school authorities claim that they have not made their minds up about the demolition.

St Ebba’s School is also going ahead with what it calls structural changes to its main block. The main building, of which details were provided in the Historic Residences series in the last issue of Madras Musings, had been used for classes till this year.

The school had for long toyed with the idea of building new premises on the site. The latest alterations comprise the removal of the Madras terrace roof of a large hall in the main block. The school states that it is replacing this with an RCC roof to enable the hall to be airconditioned. It also states that this had to be done as the beams supporting the earlier roof had weakened due to continued seepage from an overhead water tank. It is significant to point out that the school has consulted no expert on heritage buildings to assess the probable impact of an RCC roof right in the middle of a 200-year-old building. The water tank that caused the initial damage was probably also put up without any forethought of its impact and the school is paying the price for it. How can anyone feel reassured that an RCC roof and airconditioning will not cause greater and perhaps permanent damage? Buildings in worse condition than this have been saved by conservation experts.

Had a Heritage Act been in place, there would have been sufficient guidelines to indicate what could be done with such structures. But in the absence of that, ignorance and lack of awareness are wreaking havoc.