People's Park is a recreational park in the city of
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 ...
. Constructed between 1859 and 1861, the park is one of the oldest parks and the most famous one in the city.
History
The idea of setting up the park was floated by
Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, (2 April 1807 – 19 June 1886) was an English people, English civil servant and British Empire, colonial administrator. As a young man, he worked with the colonial government in Kolkata, Calcutta, In ...
, Governor of Madras in 1859–60. He also approved the plan and began the construction activities on the site. Following Trevelyan's dismissal in 1860, the work was continued by his successor William Denison. The park was eventually completed in 1861 and a Committee of Management appointed to maintain it.
Geography
The park extended for about 112 acres at one point of time and was the biggest of its kind in Chennai. There were 12 lakes within the limits of the park apart from five and half miles of road. Boating facilities were available on Victoria Lake. There was also a metalled road in the eastern corner of the park called "The Equestrians' Ride". The
Madras zoological park was located in People's Park before being shifted to
Vandalur in 1985.
The neighbourhood of
Parktown
Parktown is a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the first suburb north of the inner city (both chronologically and geographically). It is affectionately known as one of the Parks, others including Parkview, Gauteng, Parkview, Pa ...
gets its name from People's Park. The park is now in a neglected state and most of its land has been encroached upon.
See also
*
Parks in Chennai
Notes
References
*
{{Chennai Topics
Parks in Chennai
Urban public parks