St George Cathedral, Choultry Plain, Madras





 St George Cathedral. The Cathdral has completed 200 years. This is a beautiful  Georgia era church. After the fall of Tippu Sultan and annexation of Carnatic in the early decade of 19th century the British got the courage to come out of Fort St George. The Civilian and Military officials of East India Company  were allotted acres of land in the Great choultry Plain  on both sides of Mount Road  extending from Govt. Bridge in the north  to Cenotaph in Teynampet. They built palatial mansions and for their  religious services wanted to have a  church nearer to their place  since St Marys in the Fort was far off. The St George Cathedral was built of a lottery fund designed by James Lillyman Caldwell and built by Thomas De Havilland. It was opened for services  in April 1815 by formally consecrated on 6th January 1816 by Thomas Middleton the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta. Unfortunately the first burial in the church yard was that of De Havillands wife Elizabeth. The steeple of the church is 139 feet high and the nave and aisles are supported by superb Ionic columns of brick and Madras chunam. Many a great civilians and military personnel who have contributed to the growth of the city are buried here. The walls of the church have memorial busts and tablets to Thomas Parry, Daniel Corrie first Anglican Bishop of Madras, Bishop Heber, Diwan Bahadur Subramanyam founder of Kalyani hospital to name a few.  The Church is a beautiful piece of English church architecture. The Church of South India was born here on Sep 1947.

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