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| Union Club bldg. Thanjavur upload.wikimedia.or |
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| Union Club bldg. Thanjavur newindianexpress.com |
Above image: Initially in 1872 it started out as a library to be used by the literate people of this place and later it was renamed as the UNION CLUB in 1892 by the then Tanjore Destruct judge Burnell Arthur Coke The library has more than 5000 rare English books that need to be saved for future use...........
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| Union Club Thanjavur. old wooden staircase.commons.wikimedia.org |
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| Union club Thanjavur, louver door.commons.wikimedia.org |
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| oil painting of Marsh, Union Club of Thanjavur, TN commons.wikimedia.org |
Above image.: Union Club of Thanjavur, TN. The oil painting of Englishman Marsh needs restoration and it appears faded due to time factor..............................
In the last two years the Thanjavur Municipal Corporation (TMC) has been busy with various civil project works as part of the SMART CITY project introduced by the central govt in association with the state govt. The project involves relaying of old roads widening of roads in and around the big temple, beautifying age old water tanks like Ayyankulam, Samanthankulam, etc., Sivaganga garden and the water tank in it. Besides, the TMC under the effective leadership of Municipal Commissioner has embarked on a new and time-consuming project - removal of structures over the main gutters on the four main streets, demolition of building on govt lands (Puampokku nilam in Tamil), besides removal of encroachers and those who have taken long lease on municipal land and failed to pay the annual rent for decades. Also come under it are the shops in the Burma bazaar area that are, it is said, built on a big ''varry'' waste water canal. Recently, the TMC demolished the structure on a piece of land about 2 200 to 2300 sq. ft worth roughly Rs. 5 crores on East rampart near Kendirajapalayam.
TMC already removed rows of shops over the gutter on the Jupiter theater road (Anna Salai) in 2021 and way back in 2017 there was a plan to pull down the 150 -year-old Union Club building fright across the old Thanjavur bus stand. The history and heritage lovers made a serious request to the municipal authorities not to demolish the old colonial building where Bengali poet and patriot Rabindranath Tagore addressed the audience. As of today in 2022, the concern among the historians over the fate of this building persists because if the union Club building is razed to the ground along with it will be lost the history of this city and is cultural and heritage ethos.
Revenue officials when recently sealed the premises of Tanjore Union Club, the club authorities failed to produce documents substantiating that it is a registered body. Clarification is needed whether it was registered and a license was obtained as per the Tamil Nadu Places of Public Resorts Act, 1888, or not. The Union Club has no legal documents to prove its legal stand.
TMC's the 99-year land lease agreement having been lapsed. the TMC and the club are caught in a legal battle and if the ruling comes in favor of TMC, the old structure will be pulled down. The fate of the club building will be left to the discretion of the Municipal commissioner.
The implementation of the Smart Cities Mission scheme, no doubt is a good proposition as it will promote tourism and revenue for the city, but at the same time the heritage lovers say special attention needs to be paid to old structures. Privately owned buildings like Mangalavilas building (part of Maratha palace) on south main street, the building that houses Ukkadai Ambal school on west main street and a host other structures need to be recognized and preserved and the govt could help the owners in this respect. The entire palace entrance on the north street and the tall compound walls with watch towers all along the north and west sides and the mandapams inside the place grounds (once managed by St. Peter's school and VH School) need special attention.
As for the Union Club building, its origins dates back to September 14, 1872, when it was 'Tanjore Reading Room and Library' and housed in the municipality office till 1874.
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| Union Club bldg. Thanjavur upload.wikimedia.org |
On February 12, 1919, Rabindranath Tagore, on a visit to this town during the freedom struggle, visited the club and delivered a lecture.. The stone inscription on wall gives testimony to his visit. Several leaders, including CN Annadurai, Bharathidasan and others, too have visited the club in the later years.
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| Union Club bldg. Thanjavur upload.wikimedia.org |
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| Thanjavur Union Club, Billiards room.upload.wikimedia.org |
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Thanjavur Union Club, Billiards room.upload.wikimedia.org
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| .Union club, Thanjavur. louver doors com/stock- |
Above image: Louver doors: The advantage of louver doors is they provide substantial air flow due to their design, whether they are hiding a large closet or placed as a standard bedroom entryway. The great thing about this is that it allows warm or cool air to travel between rooms, even when the door is shut. In Thanjavur old court and the old collectorate buildings and even tasildars' buildings had louver doors that were common in Europe and during the colonial days in India...................
Behind the building there is enough space for two tennis courts and being an old timer, I remember having seen ace tennis player Ramanathan Krishnan in action, playing against somebody on the premises here in the early 1960s.
The Thanjavur Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) chipped in and in a meeting held in January 2021, called the district administration to issue City Heritage Regulations and Guidelines to preserve heritage structures in Thanjavur. It also wanted to declare buildings over 100-year-old as heritage buildings, but there has been no notification in this regard as yet. INTACH sources said they requested the they the Collector not to permit the demolition of the Union Club building which is part of this old city. .
Meanwhile, countless well-known people in Thanjavur frantically approached the district administration and impressed on them to save the old colonial heritage structure and the library with thousands of rare old books for the posterity. Senior lawyer V. Jeevakumar, legal advisor to Makkal Nalaperavai emphasized the importance of this solitary colonial building in the prime area of this city and demanded that proper steps should be taken as early as possible to restore it and maintain it as part of this city 's vestige of colonial administration.
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