If you work for Madras Musings, chances are that you will frequently be poring over Somerset Playne’s Southern India, its History, People, Commerce and Industrial Resources. That tome, published in 1917, is a veritable mine of information on our city and the presidency that it once lorded over. During a recent re-read, the OLD picture below caught our eye. That was of the Binny Mills in its heyday, when it employed over 10,000 people. The industrial roof, rising in three triangles is what held our attention. For we had a NEW, taken in 2022 of the same structure, now shorn of the extended wing to its left and a mere shell, reflecting on past glory.
OLD
NEW