One wouldn’t expect a quaint little red brick chapel, the likes of which could be seen in an English countryside in the 1800s, in the middle of Chennai city. But that’s St Mary’s chapel for you, built in the late 1800s. Set inside St George’s Anglo-Indian school and orphanage in Shenoy Nagar, the structure is not visible from the main road, and only those visiting the school might be familiar with it. Little is known about its history, except that it was built for the children of the school and orphanage, and not for the public or a parish.According to school authorities, the chapel, with its Celtic cross, dedicated to Virgin Mary, was built in 1883. Other sources say St George’s School and Orphanage, earlier known as the Civil Orphans’ Asylum, moved to its present site only in 1904.“One of the city’s finest examples of smaller architecture”, is how it is described in ‘The Architectural Heritage’ by K Kalpana & Frank Schiffer. “A steep fish scale tiled roof, square bell tower, exposed brickwork, and rose window (circular stained-glass window that radiates outward) together create a distinctive architectural composition that is not commonly found among the city’s surviving churches,” it says. British colonial architecture, says architect Prasanna S, was constantly evolving. “It was a mix of British spatial planning and vernacular sensibilities.”INTACH Madras describes the church as among the most interesting in the city because of “the steep gable roof with small flat fish-scale shaped tiles”, which “appears to spring right out of the ground”. “The square tower that punctures the roof adds a quaint sense of verticality to an otherwise horizontal structure. The doorway is defined by a stone rose window that once contained small panels of stained glass,” it says.The property, says Prasanna, was once the garden house of the British donor Brig T H S Conway. “The chapel and the classroom block of St George’s School are listed among the CMDA-recognised heritage structures in Chennai.”St George’s school is one of the oldest in the country, built in the early 1700s and the campus contains numerous buildings, most of which were constructed between 1900 and the 1940s. However, the structures that lend character to the campus are the two large austere exposed brick classroom buildings of 1940 and the chapel at the southwestern corner of the campus. Older still is the plastered dormitory block, portions of which are more than 100 years old, and a 1915 classroom building of exposed brick.The church keeper says the chapel opens only on weekend evenings for services for the schoolchildren. The tall bell tower is its most striking feature, but today, remains closed.
