Heritage Watch: Once Upon a Bank Building

Philip Thornton put up on Facebook last week this photograph of the Agra Bank building which stood at the intersection of Armenian Street and Esplanade. Our OLD, published here with permission from Philip, is taken at an unusual angle, facing east, with Anderson’s Church to the rear of the building.

OLD

Constructed in 1871, the building changed hands in 1900 following the Agra Bank’s liquidation and became the offices of the Chartered Bank of India, China, and Australia. This bank went through several mergers and by the 1990s was the Standard Chartered Bank. That was when it was decided to put up a new bank building in this space and the old office, hailed in its time as one of the best examples of the Hindu Saracenic style of architecture, was pulled down. What came up was still a handsome edifice.

For reasons unknown, by 2014, Standard Chartered moved out and the new buyers demolished the building and put up this humdrum structure instead. This is our NEW. Interestingly, it houses an entity known as the East India Company, which specialises in sanitary fittings!