If you speak of Chennai’s past glory, Nungambakkam cannot be kept at arms’ length. Once a quaint village in the 1700s has bloomed into a thriving commercial hotspot with educational institutions, cafes, restaurants, hotels, and entertainment zones, among others. Now, Madras Inherited has come up with the heritage walk, Shaped By Water And Time: The Making Of Nungambakkam– a neighbourhood that has managed to retain its olde worlde.
The walkers will extensively track how the neighbourhood has transitioned while casually embracing modernisation. “Nungambakkam was once part of a larger water landscape. As the city started to expand in the early 20th century and the demand for housing increased, this transformation, with its quiet bylanes, institutions, and neighbourhood layouts, still follows the outlines of these earlier water systems,” says Rachna Sundaram, who will lead the walk.
It is through the heritage walks that Rachna though has been living in Chennai all her life, still has takeaways each time. “Exploring neighbourhoods closely and understanding the stories behind everyday places has completely changed the way I see Chennai and has made me fall in love with the city all over again.
My interest in this field comes from a long-standing passion for history, heritage, and architecture,” she adds. Talking about how the traces of the neighbourhood’s earlier village and colonial histories can still be noticed in its streets’ patterns, names of the places and public spaces, Rachna elucidates, “Place names such as Lake Area, Tank Bund Road, and New Tank Street recall the water bodies that once structured the landscape, while roads like Haddows Road, Sterling Road and College Road, which appear in early 20th century maps of Madras, reflect how the city has gradually expanded around older settlements.”
As water bodies were gradually reclaimed during the 20th century to accommodate the city’s growing population, the environmental balance of the area changed significantly. “Natural drainage patterns were altered, and the landscape shifted from the ones shaped by water and agriculture to a vast commercial-yet-cultural hub,” the walk leader notes.
Place names such as Lake Area, Tank Bund Road, and New Tank Street recall the water bodies that once structured the landscape, while roads like Haddows Road, Sterling Road and College Road, which appear in early 20th century maps of Madras, reflect how the city has gradually expanded around older settlementsRachna Sundaram,walk leader
One of the most fascinating aspects of the locality is that its history often endures in quiet, everyday ways rather than through obvious monuments. Many institutions that structure daily life today, such as Loyola College, Women’s Christian College, and the Directorate of Public Instruction campus, have helped shape the neighbourhood as an educational and administrative hub. In that sense, everyday life in Nungambakkam still carries the memory of these earlier landscapes, even if they are no longer visible.
Nungambakkam’s heart still beats flawlessly as a residential neighbourhood. Interestingly, the colonial period also shaped the neighbourhood through large garden houses and spacious compounds built by British civil servants, which made Nungambakkam a quiet suburban residential area beyond Fort St George. “While many of these bungalows have disappeared, the large plots and leafy streets still reflect that earlier pattern. At the same time, older landmarks such as the Agatheeswarar Temple connect the area to its earlier village history,” the 22-year-old shares.