From grand dances to paperwork and police cases

Among the fascinating things about heritage buildings are the varied stories they tell. Take, for example, the old Police Commissioner’s Office on Infantry Road in Bengaluru, a building that takes us from Jane Austen’s novels to cybercrime.

As readers of this column know, pre-Independence Bengaluru (Bangalore)was a divided city. The cantonment was governed by British authorities, while the rest of the city was under the administration of the Mysore Maharaja. Soon after its establishment in 1807, the cantonment – known as the Civil and Military Station after 1881 – became popular among Europeans for its marvellous weather and for its parties, sport and spirits.

The Cubbon Assembly Rooms on Infantry Road was one of the establishments that were instrumental in cementing Bengaluru’s reputation as a party town. Assembly rooms were an important feature of social life in England. They allowed for “a general meeting of the polite persons of both sexes, for the sake of conversation, gallantry, news and play.” Think Bridgerton. Fans of the popular period drama will recall its many lavish balls which are held in assembly halls. Of course, Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet had her first, famously disastrous meeting with Darcy at a similar ball.

No doubt, several real-life Elizabeth Bennets and Darcys began heady romances at the Cubbon Assembly Rooms! We do not know exactly when they were built, but by the 1870s, newspapers regularly advertised and reported on entertainments held there. There were plenty of dances and balls, including some attended by the Maharaja. One such event, described in newspaper reports of the time as “the most brilliant affair that has ever taken place in Bangalore” was attended by the Prince of Wales when he visited in 1889. There were plays galore, many by professional theatre companies, others by soldiers and their wives. Several concerts also took place, including some in aid of charity.

Cubbon Rooms also hosted important gatherings. The first few meetings of the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI) were held here. In 1880, the Eurasian and Anglo Indian Association of Southern India held a raucous meeting here to discuss forming a Mysore branch. Perhaps they also discussed their president D S White’s ‘land scheme’, a proposal which led to the formation of Whitefield.

New owners

The gaiety and the laughter ended in 1900 when the owner decided to sell the assembly rooms. The proprietor was the entrepreneur G G Brown, who also owned the popular Cubbon Hotel, which was on Cubbon Road, and Brown’s Hotel in Nandi Hills. Brown sold Cubbon Rooms to the Civil and Military Station administration, which converted them into offices for the British Resident and Assistant Resident, and the Sessions and District Judge's Courts. Later, when a new office was built for the Resident, his old digs became the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Coorg.

In 1950, these buildings were handed over to the Police Department. From 1963, the building housed the Police Commissioner’s Office. About ten years ago, the Police Commissioner moved to a new building which came up on the same premises. At the time, there was talk that the heritage building would be repurposed into a police museum. However, it has for some years housed the Cyber Crime Police Station.

The structure

The building is a single-storeyed, rambling structure with an accretion of rooms, some with flat, Madras terrace roofs, others with sloping, Mangalore-tiled roofs. The ghost of the old Cubbon Assembly Rooms is palpable in the long, large central hall with its high roofs. Where once the hall echoed with the laughter of dancers or the applause of an appreciative audience, today, it buzzes with busy police work. The room has an unusually large, semi-circular ventilator through which light streams in. Two small, octagonal ventilators have decorative, coloured glass, their bright hues contrasting with the sea of brown uniforms below.

Assembly rooms typically had a cards room, tea rooms and other spaces for refreshments. With the innumerable changes over time, it is difficult to determine today where these would have been. The building’s original wrap-around verandahs with arched openings and circular columns have been closed off to create additional space for offices. Many rooms are unused or are used to store files. Years of lack of maintenance have also extracted their toll.

Given its unique and rather colourful past, the building deserves to be properly restored. It could then either continue as police offices or could be given over to a city museum, something Bengaluru sorely lacks. One hopes the state government or one of Bengaluru’s large-hearted corporates steps in to do the needful.

(Meera Iyer is a writer, independent researcher and the Convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter.)