The magnificent Banking Hall (above), of what was then the Bank of Madras, was Henry Irwin's contribution
to a building that was opened c.1900. This splendour is unrecognisable today in the building which in recent years
has become the State Bank of India's Main Branch office and which was recently damaged by fire. Can we hope for
its restoration to a glorious bit of construction in the manner the Connemara Library's 1896 Reading Hall (below)
(another Irwin masterpiece) was done a few years ago?
