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The Bowring Inst. Bangaluru, KA thehindu.com
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Old picture The Bowring Inst. Bangaluru. apkpure.com
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The Bowring Institute, Bangaluru, thehindu.com
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The Bowring Institute, Bangaluru city is yet another protected monument and has been around for more than 130 years. The institute was founded at a time when industrial revolution was on in Europe . Though the foundation was laid on November 22, 1888, the club, with elite members, had already started functioning from 1868. It is a 12 acre property located on St. Marks road, a prime locality in the heart of Bangaluru. The purpose of the club was to discuss and debate on matters related to intellectual improvement and growth of knowledge with fcilities like good library, etc., and this led to the formation of a society in February 1868 called
'the Literary and Scientific Institute. The British who took serious efforts to get the club off the ground,were Stewart Clarke and B.L. Rice, the former was the treasurer, Bowring Institute, and the project coordinator for the institute;s structural restoration work and the latter was the director of Public Instruction. It was named afte
r Lewin Bentham Bowring, an ICS officer who was the first President of the society and then the chief commissioner of Mysore and Coorg before retiring in 1870.
It was at the initiative of B.L. Rice, a spacious building, came up with help from Sri Kishnamuthy, a govt. official and philanthropist Narrainsawmy Mudaliar. The needed fund was raised by them and others. It was commander of the Mysore Division, Major General Rowland in 1888 who granted Rice a site near what was then the St Mark’s Square.The construction cost was Rs, 23000, Rs.10000 was contributed by the Mysore Govt and Rs. 5000 from the British government, rest was from the Bowring Testimonial Fund.
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| The Bowring Institute, Bangaluru, KA en.wikipedia org. |
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restored Bowring Institute, Bangaluru,
KA.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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The architect was one G.Gibson of Bangalore Municipality under whom the Victorian building was completed in 1890. The foundation stone was laid by Lady Pendergast, wife of the British Resident of Mysore. As part of restoration work of Bowring Inst. building, the 45000 sq.feet hall was undergoing repairs in 2015. Adequate care was taken to preserve its heritage value. Hence “the original structure made of lime, mortar and brick, high Madras ceiling, wooden panels and Mangalore tiles, - all would be restored back to old glory. It is said the additional structures near the original building would be pulled down to retain the old charm. The work on restoration began in earnest in 2015 and the govt. allotted Ra 11 crore for the restoration work; first monument in Karnataka to be restored as per original specification. The noted feature is no modern technology was used. The necessity to restore the structure arose after the teak wood rafters began to give way promoting seepage that might damage the building. As for the three-layered Madras ceiling, interlocking bricks made from special clay were used. The pillars were given traditional mirror-finish plastering with using ground lime with 2 million eggs. These fully traditional methods were used to maintain the authenticity of this old structure.
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