Thursday, March 13, 2014

Green hospital

No, it is not a comment on their environmental credentials, but merely about the colour scheme of this building. Situated inside Fort St George, this serves as the Ex Military Hospital as well as the Section Hospital. The building was probably not built to serve as a hospital (does that remind of you of another such?), but has been taken over to serve as one. 

The first hospital in Fort St George was set up in 1664, thanks to two gentlemen (they must have been Company doctors) William Gyford and Jeremy Sambrooke petitioning the governor Sir Edward Winter, saying, "...we have thought it very Convenient that they might have an house on purpose for them, and people appointed to looke after them and to see that nothing comes in to them, neither of meate nor drinke, but what the Doctor alloweth", the 'they' referring to English soldiers coming to Fort St George. Sir Edward agreed with them, and the hospital was established on November 16, 1664. 

That hospital appears to have moved around inside the fort for a while, sometimes being commandeered for use as barracks, before being ordered out of the fort, into Peddanaickanpet, in 1752. That hospital grew into something else. Much later, after independence, the Indian Army took over parts of Fort St George. And they went ahead and took over this building for its current purpose. Wonder if the ex-servicemen coming here would heed the exhortation of "neither meate nor drinke"!



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