Thrissur municipal corporation building, Kerala - a legacy of Cochin Princely State

Thrissur municipal corp. bldg, Kerala. thereaderwiki.com

Unlike states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, you don' see that many colonial buildings in Kerala  with exceptions like many catholic churches, Napier Museum, Thiruvanadapuram, etc. part of the reason is the state of Kerala had two princely states and rulers keenly interested in the culture of Kerala were quite content with their impressive Kerala style architecture. They were  mostly people oriented and were least interested in building palatial palaces, buildings with lots of embellishments as one would see in the northern states. 

Located in the prime locality of Thrissur, Kerala,  the Municipal Corporation Building came into being only in 1932. Its foundation was laid on 7 July 1932 by Dewan C.G. Herbert  Its striking feature  that marks out the structure in this city is its  European styled architecture. Located close to the popular Vadakkunathan temple,  on 29 December, 1932  then Dewan of Kochi, J.W.U. Bor declared open the building at a function. The municipal building was built in a short  span of time in order to meet the urgent needs.

Location, Thrissur city, Kerala state, India.google.com

The main attraction of the building is its Westminster Quarters chiming  clock that was installed by .Madras based P. ORR and sons. P. OOR and sons, Chennai  is still a leading supplier of clocks, etc. One M.R. Menon, then the Chairman of municipality  was instrumental in getting the clock installed and after initial enquiries chose the Madras-based company. The English made clock working on a mechanical system had to be wound once a week to keep it going and a special key was provided by the company for this purpose. The clock is a high quality clock made of copper. and the dials are set in all four cardinal directions. The clock on the tower adds beauty to the Gothic styled tower.

Thrissur municipal corp. bldg, Kerala. thrissur.nic.in

Incidentally the Thrissur Municipality came into existence in 1921 under the Cochin Municipal Regulations act. In the same year the council made a decision to shift the office to a Govt. Guest House - a two room   building in Shoranur. The Municipality, at that point of time, did not have a building to run its office and later decision was made to have a building built in Thrissur to bring all the departments under one roof.

view from the road.Thrissur municipal corp. bldg. en.wikipedia.org/

After Thrissur Municipal Corporation was formed in 1998, it came to be known as Municipal Corporation Building, but still the road  ion which the building stands,  is known as 'Municipal Office Road'.

https://thereaderwiki.com/en/Municipal_Corporation_Building,_Thrissu

https://thrissur.nic.in/muncipal-corporation/