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Vol. XXXI No. 4, June 1-16, 2021

Heritage Watch

The Police show us the way

In the past decade or so, ever since the DGP Building aka Chief Office was saved from demolition, the police in Tamil Nadu have emerged as exemplars of heritage conservation, at least when compared to many other Government departments and private owners. Police stations have been restored and when new wings had to be built they were constructed in a sympathetic style or if in a new idiom then tucked well away from the older structure.

It is heartening to note that the erstwhile Police Commissioner’s Office on Pantheon Road has not been pulled down after operations shifted to an eight-storeyed structure on Poonamallee High Road. Instead, work is on to convert the space into a museum for the police. This will of course not be the first such in the state. The Police Academy in Vandalur has had one for some time and it would seem much of its contents will be transferred to the proposed museum.

Though a soft launch of the space was done with an inauguration by the then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on February 26th this year, work is still going on. Significantly, the emphasis has been on removing all later additions to the heritage structure, thereby restoring it to the way it was when the police first moved in, in 1840. For more details see Lost Landmarks on Page 6.

photograph-of-the-building-taken-in-1959

Our THEN is a photograph of the building taken in 1959 and appeared in the History of the Madras Police, released that year, to commemorate the centenary of Act XXIV of 1859 which saw a restructured force in place. The beginnings of policing of course go back much earlier. Our NOW was taken recently, when your editor was invited by the police to see what plans are in place for the museum.

recent-photograph-of-the-building
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