The Steepled Grandeur of Chennai’s St. George’s Cathedral

The St. George’s Cathedral in Chennai is a palatial edifice that not only reflects the reverence of its devotees but also encapsulates the tides of history.

Collage created in Canva: Clockwise from top-left — The portico at the main entrance to St. George’s Cathedral, name board, the side facade, an old picture taken in 1905. Source: Wikimedia

If history is the story of human lives that lived to etch a mark on time, art, in its different forms, is the most exquisite channel of narration. The St. George’s Cathedral in Chennai is a palatial edifice that not only reflects the reverence of its devotees but also encapsulates the tides of history.

Religion and history are like the looms of silk whose strands, if tried to be unwinded, may lose their essence. India’s colonial history is also laced in the brocades of architectural splendours of churches and cathedrals that have inherited and preserved many stories within their artistic structures. One such is the cathedral that was declared the Church of South India in 1947.

The narrative of St. George’s Cathedral is interlaced with the British settlements on the Coromandel coasts of Madras. In the mid-eighteenth century, when the British could finally reclaim their lands by decisively defeating the French, the contemporary John’s council started distributing the grounds outside the St. George Fort’s domain to the subordinates who were part of the defending militia of the citadel. Today, these lands lie across the regions of Royapettah, Nungubakkam, and Teynampet on either side of Mount Road. Once the new owners of these extended lands settled down in their spacious houses with gardens, the only church available for them was St. Mary’s within the fort, which was by then quite a few miles away. So the need for a new church was felt, for which the contemporary head of Madras Engineers Colonel James Caldwell initiated the drafting of the structure. His design must have intended to bring the feel of their motherland to this Southern coast, so he parodied the Anglican St Martin-in-the-Fields Church of London. The grand draft was then executed with flourish by Major Thomas de Havilland and collectively pooled by the new inmates of the Choultry Plain through a lottery fund.

Brimming with devotion and tributes, the cathedral is a treat for historians and tourists alike. The pristine nave and altar infect one with peace and reverence while the artistic display soothes the palate of human aesthetics, compelling one to transcend into a spiritual state of calm, fading away from all the hustle and bustle of life. Generations may come and go, but the palatial cathedral will stand firm and tall as it has until now.

The main edifice with the white chunam look forms the base for the Belfry, which was completed in 1832 and stands tall on the steeple. The clocks on the three faces of the spire were gifted by the East India Company’s contemporary Directors. The bells of varying sizes were made by Messrs Mears & Steinbank, Founders, London and donated like many other exemplary items of the Church, by G. Banbury during Christmas of 1873. The other regalia gifted to the Cathedral over the years intermittently are – the brass cross of the revered altar by Surgeon-General Cornish, the majestic falcon-themed lectern was a memorial tribute to Archdeacon Warlow from his friends, the Episcopal chair by F. E. Kneale, the 18-carat gold chalice studded with diamonds into a cross and the paten were gifted by Lt. Col. Herbert St. Clare Carruthers, while the congregation gifted the marble baptismal font, and so on.

The highlight of the altar is the brass cross and the murals flanking it with panels of exquisite stained glass. On one side, the mural depicts the baptism of Jesus, and on the other, the resurrection of the lord. The old pipe organ takes the visitors back to the British era. The serene cemetery reminds one of the spiritual grace of human life and the final destination of every human irrespective of what one earns in this world.

The tablets and plaques are a testament to the colonial history as tributes to many British officers who lost their lives in various wars like the Battle of the Somme, the first Anglo-Afghan War, the Battle of Sobraon, the Battle of Ferozeshah, and so on. Apart from these, the first tablet a visitor can see is of Lieut-Col John Temple who died accidentally by drowning in the Adyar river and was the president of the Board of Municipal Commissioners, then of Henry Linton who died when he was twenty-eight years old and was the under secretary to the government. The memorial tablets in the form of marble projected reliefs include that of the Welsh merchant Thomas Parry who established the Parry Company in 1787. The relief depicts a dejected local mourning the death of this personality. A larger relief is of Reginald Heber who was a poet and also the Bishop of Calcutta. There is a sculpture is done by Francis Chantrey, articulating Heber’s last public appearance at Trichy while confirming the Indian Christians.

The palatial church opened to public services in 1815. Since then, it has become a must-visit location for the viceroys who visited Madras apart from the governors of St. George Fort and continues to be a prominent tourist location even in our digital age.

But, it was not until a year later that Thomas F. Middleton, the first Anglican bishop of India appointed at Calcutta, dedicated the church to "the service of God according to the use of the Church of England.”

Today, it is the mother church of the Diocese of Madras. The most important claim of this church was its ability to break the barriers among the different ecclesiastical traditions like Presbyterians, methodists, and so on and the unification of all the Protestant Christians of the region when it turned into a cathedral in 1835. The unique quality of the cathedral is its all-in-one infrastructure of hosting a European spire, murals, tablets, busts, statues, plaques, gifted ecclesiastical regalia, pantheon pillars, and much more within its edifice. The legacies of the British ancestors associated with the church also peacefully rest under their cenotaphs or weather-beaten tombs in the serene nooks of its garden-like cemetery. The first to be buried here was Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas de Havilland who passed away suddenly due to some illness. The cemetery was said to have a sort of war insignia by constructing the demarcating rails with the pikes, muskets, and other war loots of the decisive Battle of Seringapatam or the last Anglo-Mysore war. But today, there are no signs of this war weaponry around the cemetery.

The structure of the cathedral is mounted on a broad flight of stairs and is graced with equally grand side entrances. The majestic look owes to the iconic neo-classical Roman temple architecture with circular pillars both at the main and the side entrances. The massive rectangular portico of the main entrance has a triangular canopy raised on eighteen pillars of three rows. Both the side entrances are miniature forms of the main entrance standing on two pilasters and six pillars each. The right entrance houses the Lady Chapel and its entrance is welcomed into the nave by one of the huge marble busts of the Bishop of Madras during the 1860s, Rt. Rev. Frederick Gell. The left entrance is also graced with the iconic marble statue that articulates the early conversions through a boy in loins cloth and a Brahmin’s sacred thread and tuft of hair standing with the first Bishop of Madras, Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrie.

Collage created in Canva: The Grand nave of the Cathedral both in daylight and at dusk and the altar niche. Source: navranindia.in / Indian Columbus.blogspot / Wikimedia

Collage in Canva: Above — Cemetery of the Cathedral Below — Chapel added within the cemetery Source: Chennai Citizens Matters

Collage created in Canva: Clockwise from top-left — Reliefs and tablets in the memory of Thomas Parry, Henry Linton, John Temple, Thomas Dealtry, Reginald Heber, and John Dent. Source: Indian Columbus Blogspot.

Collage created in Canva: Clockwise from top-left — Old pipe organ, plaque in memory of Robert Caldwell, the Tamil scholar who contributed vastly to history and archaeology along with translating Bible into Tamil, murals on either side of the altar. Source: Wikimedia / Indian Columbus Blogspot / navrangindia.in

Collage created in Canva: Clockwise from top-left — Some gifts to the cathedral (gold Chalice, brass cross, falcon-themed lectern, and episcopal chair), turret clock, a steeple view. source: Wikimedia / Indian Columbus.blogspot / navranindia.in

Collage created in Canva: From Top left clockwise- bust of Rt. Rev. Frederick Gell, the iconic statue of Bishop of Madras, Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrie, Jacobus Anderson, the distinguished Physician General in Fort St. George. Source: Indian Columbus.blogspot / Chennai Citizen Matters