Mysteries behind Chennai’s street names, old and new

Discover the fascinating history of New Street in George Town, Madras, connecting Geils and Mannady Streets.

New Street, contrary to its name, is one of the oldest parts of Madras, George Town to be precise. It is a narrow and nondescript north-south thoroughfare connecting Geils (now Gills) and Mannady Streets. The question is, why ‘New’ and for how long has it been that way? To that I have no answer.

I can only hazard a guess that this name is in some way connected to the creation of the Mannady area. And that is a story which, no matter how many times it is recounted, always fascinates. Time was when the area near Central Station, and long before that landmark came up, was a mound, or rather, two mounds. There was Narimedu or Hogg Hill, which was roughly where the Park Town Post Office now stands, and to its right was a nameless rise, which the British jocularly named Mont Blanc. And before we dismiss these as inconsequential, let me add that Narimedu features in the land grant that the Raja of Chandragiri gave the British, which led to the building of Fort St. George.

Initially, Hogg Hill was considered a suitable site for constructing a new Fort St. George, should the old one be washed away by the sea. But by 1750, there was a growing perception that the mound was a security threat to the Fort as enemy cannon could be stationed there. For the next thirty years, the English rather sporadically took action — houses and buildings were demolished but the mound remained. It was in the 1780s, with Hyder Ali threatening Madras, that the necessity to flatten the ground became pressing. It was estimated that around 214,000 cubic yards of sand would have to be removed and dumped into the sea. Tenders were floated and many bid for it.

Work began in January 1781 and continued for much of the year. The soil was, contrary to earlier opinion, put to use. Low-lying land at various places was acquired by the Government for levelling and a small part made it to grounds belonging to Stephen Popham, lawyer, prospector and public busybody. He was one of the many petitioners who had pressed the Government for action on Hogg Hill and he benefited from it.

His land, now raised to ground level by soil from the mound, became Mannady and Broadway — new areas where none existed before. Mannady, as the name suggests, was because soil was rammed in to raise the height. And branching off on both sides of Mannady Street were new roads, in a neat grid. It is my theory that the first of these was New Street and while the others got names to commemorate, this one never did. Given that no politician of today would consider George Town streets worthy of renaming, it has survived to tell the tale. Again I must add here that this is just my conjecture and there could well be some other explanation for the name.

The earlier reference I can get to New Street dates to 1902. Oddly enough, it does not feature in a street directory of 1932 that I frequently refer to, but my guess is that this may be a clerical omission.

Mont Blanc survived till the 1850s when it was flattened too. The space made way for a garden used by convicts from the Central Jail just opposite. In the 1880s, this became Adam’s Park, probably commemorating W.P. Adam, who was briefly Governor of Madras, dying in Ooty. The park made way in 1911 for the M&SM Railway headquarters, which is where Southern Railway functions from even now.