Mint Clock Tower is a standalone

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

in George Town,

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is one of the four standalone clock towers in Chennai, the other three being the ones at

Royapettah Royapettah is a neighbourhood of Chennai, India. Location Royapettah is located at the central part of the city of Chennai, with an elevation of 9 m (29 ft.) above mean sea level. The neighbourhood comes under Teynampet Zone (numbe ...

Doveton Doveton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 31 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Casey local government area. Doveton recorded a population of 9,603 at the 2021 census. Doveton ...

and Pulianthope.

History

The first standalone clock tower in the city was built at Doveton Junction at

Purasawalkam Purasawalkam also known as Purasaiwakkam or Purasai / Purasawakkam, is a residential shopping area in the district of Chennai in the States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is close to the Chennai Central and Chennai Eg ...

in the early 1900s. Before the tower was built, until the end of the 19th century, officers at

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress at 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 ...

used to fire

cannonball A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

s at 8:00 p.m. every day. This practice, however, stopped after the construction of the first standalone clock tower. Following this, a similar tower was built at Mint Junction in George Town. The clock at the tower was built by Gani and Sons, initially known as the South India Watch Company, which was started in 1909 by Haji Mirza Abdul Gani Namazi of Iranian descent. It is the company that also provided clocks for the independent clock towers at Royapettah,

Choolai Choolai is a developed residential area in Central Chennai, a metropolitan city in Tamil Nadu. Location Choolai is located near Chennai Central, 1 km from chennai central railway station Choolai has got its name because of the Brick kilns ...

and

Tiruvottiyur Tiruvottriyur (Thiruvottiyur or TVT) is a neighbourhood in North Chennai, administered by the Greater Chennai Corporation. It is part of the Tondiarpet division, located to the north of Chennai. It is one of the fifteen administrative zones in ...

among others. The clock tower was inaugurated in 1948 by the then Mayor of Madras U. Krishna Rao.

Location

The clock tower is located at the Mint Junction, where Basin Bridge Road, North Wall Road, Mint Street, and Old Jail Road meet.

Features

The clock tower remains a classic example of

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

architecture in the city. The features of the clock tower include linear model, thin lines, high use of cement concrete, rich usage of colours and fewer floral engravings. The architectural style of the clock tower was influenced by the Industrial and the French revolutions, as were the other clock towers and cinema theatres built in the city in the 1900s. The tower is high. Each of the dials on the clock is made of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and measures in diameter. The clock has a

pendulum A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...

, a swinging weight, as its time-keeping element and runs on weight-driven mechanism. The internal mechanism consists of six iron plates tied to a metal rope, which are connected to a chain of wheels. As the wheels rotate, they move the iron plates down, moving the brass pointer on the dial. The clock has to be manually wound using a spanner as key once every 30 hours. The clock stops working, however, once the plates hit the floor. The plates are lifted manually once a week by keying it.

Renovation

The clock had been defunct for several decades. In 2013, following the construction of Mint flyover at the junction, the Corporation decided to revive the clock tower. In January 2014, the

Chennai Corporation Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is a local government for the City of Chennai in the Chennai Metropolitan Area of Tamil Nadu, India. Inaugurated on 29 September 1688, under a royal charter issued by King James II of England on 30 December ...

and P. Orr & Sons jointly completed renovating the tower. On 17 January 2014, the clock was run on a trial basis following repairs.

References

Bibliography

* {{coord missing, Tamil Nadu History of Chennai Buildings and structures in Chennai Clock towers in India Towers completed in 1948