The History Of Chennai ...

The first British warehouse came up in 1639 when the British acquired the sandy beach from the local kayaks on leasa. It was called Madraspatinam then. Later by 1654 the Fort St.Geroge was built. Still later the neighboring villages were included in the city wich came either as grants of gifts. Triplicane was rented from the Sultan of Golconda in 1676. In 1744 Robert Clive worked as a writer from the Fort, Later to become a military man of the British Army. The Fort House, which housed the Governor and his council, were added in the 17th century, the Assembly Hall in 1910and the Secretariat in 1925.

All the neighboring are as were merged into the city now known as madras or as Chennai as it is officially known today. Until Independence, Madras was the capital of what in British times was called the Madras Presidency, comprising nearly the whole of South India, including the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada speaking areas. Today Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu.