Broadway: A broad walk for a narrow road.

The road Broadway in our Madras's George Town draws its origins from the 18th century, when it divided George Town into Mudialpet and Pedanayakkanpet, both with their own caste, class and ethnicity. At one point it was one of the city's biggest, most happening roads, with a theatre, several publishing houses and religious institutions,  but now is a bustling part of the city's commercial old town.
Mythreyi Krishnaswamy and I, accompanied by Kannan Palani traced most of the length of Broadway, as part of a project to document the churches of the city.
After visiting the Anderson church, the three of us walked down to the entrance of Broadway. The sharp turning off NSC Bose road makes for careful crossing, but once you manage it, you now have further obstacles to avoid.
Broadway is known today as Prakasam road, after a leader and erstwhile Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency from the Congress Party, T Prakasam, later first Chief Minister of Andhra.

an old building, now sublet. On the left just after the beginning of Broadway

Our first stop was the St Thomas Orthodox church. 

After passing a slum on the corner of Broadway and Audiappa Naiakken street, we came to the church.  A spectacular building of the late 19th century, but the caretaker told us the priest comes there very infrequently, only on Sunday mornings. 

(At first she asked if we were Malayali, and when we said no, told us to go pray at some other chapel, but when we told her our interest was history and heritage, she gave us the above piece of news.)

We went from here to the Tucker church

According to a plaque inside the church, the Tucker church was started by the Reverend John Tucker, who was "Fifteen years Secretary of the Madras Corresponding Committee, of the Church Missionary Society and Minister of this Chapel". He died in England in 1873, at the age of 81.
The structure of the building is quite modest, and contains an old organ, one of the few Madras churches to do so. Lots of plaques mention members of the church who have died. Not sure if any of these are vaults, but are definitely for remembrance of the departed one.

The organ 

The font

Before arriving at the Tucker church, we came across a series of old buildings:

After this, we went to the Wesley churches, Tamil and English

But first, we crossed the road, and had a look at the Centenary hall.

This is a hall built to commemorate 100 years of the Tucker church, which once was used by the church for meetings, gatherings and functions, Now it serves as a storehouse for goods of a local caretaker. The brickwork and the plastering is peeling, and a cow is tied, seemingly permanently to the window on the road. 

The inside of the hall

Next to the Hall is the Minerva press, now defunct

Sign on top proclaims the history of this building

From here we went to the Arcot church, which was closed that day. (will be edited when we visit)

Christmas decorations were still up at most churches which we visited, like the ones seen above, as it was between Christmas and New Years'.

Wesley Churches

The Tamil

In 1861, the Wesley church started a new division, for preaching and prayer in Tamil. This church has plaques smattered liberally, commemorating Silver, Gold, Diamond jubilees and whatnot, along with a couple of memorial tablets on the walls. A very simple church, the caretakers let us in, and let us look around. The Tamil church is a little off Broadway, on Thatha Muthiappan street. 

The English

When we came into the churches compound, we wondered at the size of it. At the same time we wondered how we were to go in. As we went around a side, we saw a door slightly open, so peeked in. Unfortunately, no one was there. We turned and sadly went away. Luckily, there was a garden on the other side, where the caretaker was sitting. We called out to him from the main road, and got him to open it for us. 

Built in 1844(strangely the signboard says 1822 and 44), this church was built for the Wesleyan Methodists of the city. The church is a unique one, built on two levels. The ground floor is like a basement, with plaques and two adjoining rooms. The upstairs has the seating area, and the dias. 

A few buildings we saw on the way were a Jewish jewellery and  ruby merchant's store, and a building with J.O.Y 'Venlak' on its front. The ex-jewellery store has a plaque on top that calls it Shadulia palace. Any leads on that anyone?

Venlak's house:

Next we went to the St Francis Xavier church, named after the famous Portugese convertor of India, Francis Xavier, who was one of the most foremost of the Saints who took Christianity to the East. 

This church is from the 1700's, but renovated in the early 1900's. The church has some relics, and also hosts a school within its campus. Again, this church is just off Broadway on St Xavier street. 

From here, we detoured from Broadway to the Protugese church, which deserves a rant to itself.

From here we came back to a road parallel to Broadway, Pedariar street, where we went to the st Marks church. Established in 1805, this 213 year old church has within its complex numerous tablets. The structure is mostly the same, but with a little renovation here and there. 

This brought us to the end of Broadway.

The end of Broadway actually houses a women's college, and a PWD campus, which is one of the city's oldest jails, a debtors jail at a point, now of course no longer in use, which I visited at another point of time, so will publish that later. 

 From here we went to the St Mary's church in the Fort. But that is for another write-up.