Art Deco is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with ­machinery age materials and shapes. Beginning in France in the 1920s, it ­became popular the world over and lasted till the 1940s. It came somewhat late to India where it is perhaps best associated with cinema theatres. Art Deco arrived in Madras by the late 1930s, with Parry & Co’s Dare House, constructed between the late 1930s and early 1940s, being among the first.

With that iconic building dominating the skyline of Esplanade Road/China Bazar Road (now NSC Bose Road), it was but natural that neighbouring structures when built decided to follow the same style. All of these came up on land once occupied by the classical edifices of the Madras Christian College and School, which functioned in this area before shifting to Tambaram and Chetpet from the 1930s. Its buildings were all bought over by finance and insurance companies which functioned in them till the 1950s when they began demolition in order to build new offices in modern style. The sole survivor of the college structures is the Anderson Church. One of the newcomers was the State Bank of Mysore.

The State Bank of Mysore came into existence in 1913 as the Bank of Mysore Limited, established under the patronage of the Maharajah of that princely state, on the advice of Sir M. Visweswarayya. It was, however, only in the 1950s that it opened an office in Madras, purchasing the erstwhile College Hall of Madras Christian College. This was demolished and the new structure came up in ­pristine Art Deco style. The chief architect was B.R. Manickam, then the Chief ­Engineer of the Public Works Department, Mysore (afterwards Karnataka). Of note is that, he was also later the architect of the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore. ­Assisting him in the Bank of Mysore building was the firm of C.R. Narayana Rao.

Built with the grey stone with which several of the Bangalore edifices of the period were constructed, the Bank of Mysore building was inaugurated on September 5, 1957 by K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Madras, in the presence of S. Nijalingappa, Chief Minister of Mysore. Two years later, the bank was reconstituted as the State Bank of Mysore, becoming a subsidiary of the State Bank of India.

The building continues to be in use and is well maintained, at least from outside, barring a distressing tendency to replace the original windows with plate glass. Along with its neighbours, it presents a uniformity of skyline that is rare in an increasingly cluttered city.