Madras Club

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The Adyar Club, c. 1905 The Adyar Club 1905.jpeg
The Adyar Club, c. 1905

Madras Club, or Adyar Club, is a gentleman's club in the city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1832, it is the second oldest of its kind in India. [1]

Gentlemens club members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men

A gentlemen's club, or traditional gentlemen's club, is a private social club originally set up by and for British upper-class men in the 18th century, and popularised by English upper middle-class men and women in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Chennai Place in Tamil Nadu, India

Chennai is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is the biggest cultural, economic and educational centre of south India. According to the 2011 Indian census, it is the sixth most populous city and fourth-most populous urban agglomeration in India. The city together with the adjoining regions constitute the Chennai Metropolitan Area, which is the 36th-largest urban area by population in the world. Chennai is among the most visited Indian cities by foreign tourists. It was ranked the 43rd most visited city in the world for the year 2015. The Quality of Living Survey rated Chennai as the safest city in India. Chennai attracts 45 percent of health tourists visiting India, and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. As such, it is termed "India's health capital". As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems.

India Country in South Asia

India, also known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Contents

History

The Madras Club was founded on May 15, 1832 as a European men-only club. [1] Its first President was one H. Chamier. [1] The Adyar Club was founded in 1890. [1] In contrast to the Madras Club, the Adyar Club gave membership to women. [1] Originally started as a Europeans-only club, the Adyar Club started admitting Indians as members in 1960. [1] The two clubs merged in 1963 under the name "Madras Club". [1] Since the merger, the Madras Club has been admitting Indians as its members. [1]

The Civilian's South India, in its 1921 issue, considered the Madras Club to be the best of its kind in the country

Madras being the Headquarter of Headquarters, the Madras Club is naturally the Ace of Clubs. It is said to be the best Club in India, and the Civilian can well believe that it is; you can lose yourself in it three or four times running, and parts of it are still believed by some to be unexplored. The Civilian thinks it is the only Club in the Presidency which is a convenience and not an institution or a duty; and that is only because it is so large that nobody knows or cares whether you are there or not
Civilian's South India, pp 51-52, 1921. [2]

Headquarters

The Express Estate, which now houses the Express Avenue shopping mall, was till 1947, the original home of the Madras Club. [1] The club moved to Adyar in 1963 and is still based there.

Express Avenue

Express Avenue is a shopping mall in Chennai promoted by Express Infrastructure, A division of Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. It is home to the largest gaming arcade in South India. Built at a cost of 7,500 million (US$100 million), the 1,750,000-square-foot (163,000 m2) mall has 10 anchor tenants and 150 vanilla tenants.

Shopping mall complex of shops

A shopping mall is a modern, chiefly North American, term for a form of shopping precinct or shopping center, in which one or more buildings form a complex of shops representing merchandisers with interconnecting walkways that enable customers to walk from unit to unit. A shopping arcade is a specific type of shopping precinct which is usually distinguished in English for mall shopping by the fact that connecting walkways are not owned by a single proprietor and are in open air. Shopping malls in 2017 accounted for 8% of retailing space in the United States.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Muthiah, S. (2004). Madras Rediscovered. East West Books (Madras) Pvt Ltd. pp. 76–79. ISBN   81-88661-24-4.
  2. Srinivasachari, C. S. (1939). History of the city of Madras written for the Tercentenary Celebration Committee. Madras: P. Varadachary & Co. p. 227.

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