Old damage

This is one of the buildings inside the Fort St George complex. At some point, it would have served as the barracks for the troops stationed inside the Fort. Maybe it was also housing for some of the administrative staff in the Fort - remember, most of the big names of Anglo-Indian history began their careers as 'writers' with the East India Company. Did they stay in these kind of lodgings?

The damage to these has been caused by neglect and nature, rather than any planned hand. But on this day in 1746, after a couple of weeks of aggression, the French forces under Bertrand-François Mahé, Comte de La Bourdonnais, entered the city of Madras - basically Fort St George - having called upon the English to give up all their possessions and suffer themselves to be prisoners of war.

The French occupation lasted for just a couple of years. These buildings came up much after the 1746-49 occupation of Fort St George by the French. But if things continue to go the way they are right now, the demolition of the Fort will be completed by sheer inaction!