The Victoria Edward Town Hall, located on North Veli Street in Madurai, is one of the city’s most significant yet underappreciated colonial-era landmarks. Built in 1908, close to the Madurai Railway Junction, the Town Hall gave its name to the now-famous Town Hall Road, much as Mount Road defines Chennai or Marine Drive defines Mumbai. While Madurai is globally renowned for the Meenakshi Amman Temple and the Kallazhagar festival, this colonial civic building represents an important chapter in the city’s modern public and cultural life. Victoria Edward Hall, having faced near demolition several years ago, in 2022 turned 130 years .Because of its sturdy structure it has stood the test of time and vagaries of weather. Once the venue for public and council meetings, civic receptions and banquets in honour of visiting celebrities like Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji — it faced the threat of demolition in the early 1990s.
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| Victoria Edward Hall (Town Hall), Madurai. indiatimes.com |
Architecturally, the Victoria Edward Town Hall is a striking example of Indo-European design, blending Victorian, Gothic, and Portuguese influences. Its symmetrical façade, high ceilings, arched openings, and solid masonry reflect the functional elegance typical of late colonial civic buildings. Surrounded by a well-maintained lawn, the structure was conceived as the first enclosed public auditorium in the city, replacing earlier open grounds such as Thamukkam Maidan and Tilak Thidal for meetings, performances, and social gatherings. Like other town halls built during the British period, it served as a democratic space for cultural exchange, public discourse, and civic engagement.
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| King Edward VII and Queen Victoria commons.wikimedia.org |
An integral and invaluable component of the Town Hall is the Victoria Edward Hall Library, one of the oldest libraries in Tamil Nadu. Originating from a small reading room established in 1902 by the Madurai District Literary Association, the library grew alongside the Town Hall. Today, it houses over 30,000 rare and valuable books, including Homer’s Odyssey, works of English essayists and dramatists, Tamil and Sanskrit literature, British Empire postal stamp catalogues, Catholic dictionaries, and an extensive collection of government gazettes and bulletins dating back to 1923. These holdings make the library a treasure trove for scholars and historians.
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| Victoria hall/Regal theater,Madurai facebook.com |
Above image: Victoria Town Hall on West Veli street,Madurai. In the 1920s part of the building was used to screen silent films...........
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| Madurai town hall, TN serving as a cine theater. thehindu.com |
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| Library in the Victoria Edward Hall, Madurai. thehindu.com |
Preservation efforts such as digitisation, mending of damaged pages, and improved cataloguing have begun, but they require sustained financial support. Managed by a charitable society, the institution urgently needs assistance from the state or central government. With thoughtful conservation and public engagement, the Victoria Edward Town Hall and its library (the oldesti n Madurai) can be revitalised as living heritage spaces—bridging Madurai’s colonial past with its intellectual and cultural future.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/a-library-in-need-of-patrons/article23335438.ece
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/madurais-famed-hallmark/articleshow/13931021.cms
K. N. Jayaraman
