Ripon Building

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Coordinates: 13°04′54″N 80°16′18″E / 13.081746025033645, 80.2716600894928

Ripon Building is the seat of the Chennai Corporation in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This is a fine example of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, a combination of three types of architectural styles - Gothic, Ionic and Corinthian.

The Ripon Building is white in colour and is located near the Central station in Chennai. Commissioned in 1913, it was built by a builder named Loganatha Mudaliar. the Building took four years to build at a cost of 750,000 Rupees. Ripon building was named after Lord Ripon, Governor-General of British India and the Father of local self-government. Earl of Minto, the then Viceroy and Governor General of India laid the foundation on December 12, 1909.

The Municipal Corporation of Madras, after functioning from several other places, settled at Ripon building in 1913, with P.L. Moore as the President of the Municipal Corporation at the time of the inauguration.

[edit] Building details

The building is rectangular and is 85 meters long and 32 meters wide.
The first of its three floors offers about 2,800 square meters of space.
Its central tower is 43 meters tall and has a clock 2.5 meters in diameter.
The walls were constructed with stock bricks, set and plastered with lime mortar.
The roofs are supported with teak wood joists. The original flooring of the ground floor was Cuddapah Slate. This has now been replaced with marble.
One of the main attractions of the building is the Westminster Quarter chiming clock. This was installed by Oakes and Co. in 1913. The clock has a mechanical key system, which is wound every day. There are a total of 4 bells, which were cast by Gillet and Johnston in 1913.