Beach House, the historic bungalow inside Queen Mary’s College campus (see Heritage Watch for further details) has been demolished. It is making way for a ‘world-class auditorium’ and so you cannot blame the authorities for thinking futuristic, and therefore sacrificing something of the past. The college was careful enough to consult the Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee Report to make sure the building was not listed there. And since it was not, it was not worth preserving. The building was dilapidated and the Public Works Department cleared its demolition so that the lives of students and faculty would not be endangered.
And so, nobody is to blame really. Except the building perhaps?
Each of the above precautions that the authorities took before going ahead with the demolition needs scrutiny. That the building was dilapidated was well known. It was manifest to anyone who even walked or drove by the beach. But that it was on the verge of collapse is doubtful. And before we go into that, we need to enquire as to why it became dilapidated. It did so owing to prolonged neglect. As long as the place was being used for classes, and many an alumna has written reminiscing about having lessons there, it was in reasonable shape. It was only when it was abandoned that it presented a derelict appearance. Since at least the 1980s, we know that when authorities plan to demolish a heritage structure, they do not do it in a hurry. They abandon it first, starve it of maintenance and then approach the PWD for a demolition certificate. The mills of the government grind slowly, and small.
Next comes the reliance on the Justice Padmanabhan Committee report. It is a very valuable document in that it was the first of its kind as far as built heritage in the city is concerned. It was however put together with a completely different purpose in mind – it was meant to list buildings before which large outdoor hoardings could be erected. It thus focused only on facades and did not go into details of historic structures within campuses. This was recognized in Justice Prabha Sridevan’s judgement concerning Bharat Insurance Building and Gokhale Hall in 2010 when the report was recommended to the government as the basis on which it could make its own assessment and list of heritage buildings, prior to forming a heritage conservation committee. That very little action has since happened is known to all Madras Musings regulars. Those in possession of heritage structures therefore make use of this report one way or the other. You cannot blame them in the absence of anything better. But to rule out historicity based on this report is a grievous mistake.
Did the college really need a world-class auditorium? Will it be able to use such a structure regularly or will it be a showpiece that is locked up on most days? Would it not have been better off with a renovated heritage structure in its midst that it could use as an office or as a set of classrooms? It seems that practical wisdom has been traded away for the sake of cosmetics.
Anyway, the building has come down. That it happened quite some time ago and several people apparently knew about it but chose to remain silent even when consulted at the proposal stage, makes it doubly shocking. The close scaffoldings erected for Metrorail work came in handy for the demolition to proceed apace without outsiders noticing. Once the matter became public, the college claims that it plans to name the proposed auditorium after S Subramania Iyer, the stellar occupant of Beach House. We can take some small satisfaction in that, if and when that happens.