Dare House is an

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

which houses the offices of the

Murugappa Group Murugappa Group is an Indian conglomerate founded in 1900. The Group has 28 businesses including nine companies listed on the NSE and the BSE. Headquartered in Chennai, the major companies of the Group include Carborundum Universal Ltd., Chol ...

. Constructed between 1938 and 1940, it is named after William Dare, one of the partners of Parry & Co. from 1819 to 1838. The surrounding neighbourhood of Georgetown is more popularly known as Parry's Corner after

EID Parry East India Distilleries (EID) Parry Limited is an Indian public company headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu that has been in business for more than 225 years. It has many firsts to its credit, including the manufacturing of fertilizers (1906 ...

, the flagship company of the Murugappa Group.

History

The site where the building now stands was part of Muthialpet where Comte de Lally positioned his cannons during his siege of

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

in 1758-59. When the

Carnatic Wars The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763. The conflicts involved n ...

ended, Black Town which stood to the south of Muthialpet was levelled and a new

esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

or open space created to provide a clear field of view for the artillery in case of an attack. The frontiers of the esplanade were marked with six boundary markers, five of which have disappeared. The only one that has survived is now located within the precincts of Dare House.

John Call Sir John Call, 1st Baronet (30 June 1731 – 1 March 1801) was an English engineer and baronet. He was born at Fenny Park, Tiverton, Devon, educated at Blundell's School and went to India at the age of 17 with Benjamin Robins, the chief enginee ...

, chief engineer of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

constructed a garden house, one of the earliest buildings at the spot. He later sold it to

Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, or Muhammed Ali, Wallajah (7 July 1717 – 13 October 1795), was the Nawab of the Carnatic from 1749 until his death in 1795. He declared himself Nawab in 1749. This position was disputed between Wallajah and Ch ...

, the Nawab of the Carnatic.

Design

Dare House sports an emphasis on vertical lines and a distinct design of a 'sunburst jaali' for ventilation.

References

* {{Chennai topics Office buildings in Chennai

History

Design

See also

References