And so, the new year begins on a happy note for heritage in our city. After several delays, the magnificently restored Victoria Public Hall, a veritable jewel of the city, was finally dedicated to the public by the Hon’ble Chief Minister on December 23, 2025. Restored at a cost of around Rs 33 crores under the Singara Chennai 2.0 scheme, it has been given a fresh lease of life. A job well begun is half-done, as the saying goes, for now comes the bigger challenge of ensuring that the hall becomes a must-visit place on the tourist itinerary, which will also make it a commercially viable exercise.
That the potential to make it a vibrant place is immense is undeniable. Imagine people on a stopover at the Central Station with a few hours before catching a train making a quick visit to the hall to watch a performance or catch a piece of history walking through the three halls of the museum on the ground floor. With its proximity to the Chennai Central Metro Station, a well-run and professionally managed Victoria Public Hall can attract sustained footfalls. However, it is essential to ensure that the ills that plague many of our city museums do not spillover to this historic campus as well. Readers of this magazine may recollect its views not so long ago (MM, July 16-31, 2024) stressing on the need to keep museums relevant, which will be a key factor in attracting higher footfalls. We have been promised that the museum of the Victoria Public Hall will be a mix of stationary and revolving exhibits, which ensures that there is some freshness to it periodically. Hopefully this is followed in spirit and is not something that remains on paper. Getting a full-time professional curator to manage the show would also help in this regard. It is also essential to price it appropriately and not too low, which would be hardly sufficient for its upkeep. At the time of writing, the website shows a fee of Rs 25 per adult (with foreigners being charged Rs 50) and students and senior citizens at Rs 10. While these nominal rates are understandable at present, probably keeping in mind the need to attract higher footfalls, it is essential that they are reviewed periodically and changes as necessitated carried out, so that they correlate in some proportion at least to the cost of upkeep.
Victoria Public Hall’s connect with the performing arts, and Tamil theatre in particular, courtesy the Suguna Vilasa Sabha have been well-documented. The renovated performing space on the first floor, which the Corporation plans to let out for events, holds much promise in reviving this connection. Hopefully, the government takes the lead in organizing regular theatre festivals at the venue, which would in-turn throw the spotlight on the hall amongst theatre audiences. It is also important to ensure that those booking the hall are assured of its availability for the day they book. There have been instances in the past when bookings at another prominent performance space of our city, the Museum Theatre, have come along with an unofficial diktat that they would be at risk should there be any official function that is scheduled later. Hopefully, this does not repeat at the Victoria Public Hall. The Corporation could also think on the lines of having differential slab rates for different kinds of event bookings instead of a flat rate, which would help attract audiences from a wide stratum of society and in turn increase the footfalls to the campus.
It must be remembered that the splendour of the hall was at its best when it was in continuous use for performances and public meetings and it is essential that in its refurbished avatar it continues to be put to best use. We have seen, in the not-so-distant past as to how a well-planned and executed renovation effort of yet another architectural wonder of our city, the Senate House was largely rendered ineffective, with the hall being sparsely used for events and largely as a godown. We surely cannot afford the same fate to befall Victoria Public Hall.