Wellington Street: Bangalore, Photographs
Growing up in Richmond Town, on a road called Rose Lane, one came across
many interesting happenings. The town in the early '50's was made up of Anglo-Indians
and one particular well known Muslim family called Mirza, who was said to
have owned over 30 houses in the town.!! I was pretty sure of that, as the
old gentleman, bent with age, always in spotless white kurta, and accompanied
by a lovely short lady with extremely vibrant red hair lived on Wellington
Street in an old house that had a back entrance on Clapham street opposite
the late Miss. G. Flannigan's place. He, I understand was related to the Dewan
of Mysore, and so had lot of wealth.
Richmond town was famous for the Sunday auctions help on Wellington street
by late Mr. Ince and late Mr. Chester Allen (who also conducted an auction
on MG Road, behind Thomas Cooke building), and on Alexander street by Ronald
Pacheco ( who lives in retirement at daCosta Square today). The auction was
a fun thing if you were 'not' buying and only came for 'time pass', but many
I am sure went back bidding for something they would never use in their lives,
like my wife did, but it was all in the spirit, and one really enjoyed the
adrenaline of the bidding!! In the early days of my marriage, this Sunday
ritual was the 'time pass' till the kids came and the journey to the
auction became an ordeal instead of being entertainment, but now and then
we did make it to one. Ronald Pacheco survived his father the Doctor, and
the house was sold and so did end the auction business.
If you enter Wellington street from Richmond Road, you presently find Koshy's
'Automatic' Bakery, then a large compound with an old bungalow called 'Marie
Villa', used to be owned by Mrs. Mersh, later by her daughter Mrs. Aquino.
One of the sons, John was in Bangalore lately in 2003, and I was able
to get some shots of the house (front elevated view
, side view
, rear view
- the trellis door has a family story that the grandmother killed a cobra
with a hockey stick when she was around 18 yrs old, and the broke the wood
which till date was never repaired. A real pioneering woman!!) . The other
brothers Brian and Marcus used to keep in touch with me on the net (
check out the St. Joseph's OBA page of mine
). Next door one finds the Mascarenhas house
( this is where the auctions used to take place, evangelist Fritz lives
here). This is twin to the Aquino house, of course it has been modified a
little!! Opposite these houses (where stands SS Mansion) was a row of rooms,
part of a cottage in the cut away section of the Richmond House compound.
The Hofflands (Christopher) and O'neil lived. The Aswanis (Lal, Mohan , Roop)
lived in the next house after Leonard Lane cross (where today the dilapidated
Post Office is located), with the Mirza' s following. Opposite we used
to have late Mr. Keys' Guest House, and Cheerful Lodge (today a beehive of
flats called Wellington Apartments) where the Furnels (Police Inspector, Denzil,
Glen) lived in the side cottage, forgot who lived in the main house. I remember
that there used to be a very tasty rose apple tree.. Bang opposite was the
Pillay's (Winston 'Winkie' & Christopher) and late Mr. & Mr.
Longsworth (who used to run a private taxi service to go to Mysore for sight
seeing) lived. Further down, after Serpentine Street cross, one came across
Nigley, Martin, Moore (Werner, I used to live behind to this house which
was next to the Richmond Institute, and has become part of Frank Anthony's
Junior School), Dalby, Dass (Jayraj, aka Mr.Bond!!!) , Wyse, Webster, Mirza
again, and opposite was
Richmond Institute.
I think the Fords and Boyers lived after Alexender Street cross, with the Briggs (late Chippy of the Devil Beats, Shirley Fitzgerald), next came
the D'souza's (Mario , Bruno used to be a good musician), then Machado (late
Loy of my band Axis, Renee) Dacosta (Vivian, Dereck, now this house has been
demolished), Lewis (Camlin Chicken fame), and ending up into the Baptist Bible
College. (Some of this info you may have already come across under
"People"
, in my earlier pages of Bangalorewalla). Today there are very few houses
left and so far I have managed to get shots of 3 of the 6 old houses standing.
Bruno D'souza's (Gussy's friend) house and next door Rashid's who used to
be our neighbour on Rose Lane (having a shop on Alexender Street called Rashids,
the back wall was our house) is pending. Building my site is so personalized
it sometimes reminds me of the computer game called 'Simcity' , where all
the players on the field are real people who lived in Richmond Town at some
stage. As and when I get the photos, I will link them to this page.
Ron's e-mail: Ronnie 1
(or) Ronnie 2
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Celebrating the 7th Anniversary of Bangalorewalla
Return to Home Page : India Hello, Bangalore Walla,
Namaskara!
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Thought for the Day:
" Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you
who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For
you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude
you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man's
sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great
in heaven, Fon in the manner their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to
you who are rich, For you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are
full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn
and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did they fathers
to the false prophets."Holy Bible: Luke 6:20-26
