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| Vintage clock towers.pinterest.ie/pin |
Hyderabad city, a well planned one with wide roads and gardens, was once known as the land of Nizams where there was no dearth of cultural and trade activities dominated by textiles and diamonds.The pomp and glory of the kingdom and the rulers personal lives never stood in the way and the people's welfare was taken care of with due attention. Hence the Nizams who were held in esteem, built educational institutions, medical colleges and hospitals. The infrastructure development, an important segment of the growth of the kingdom, got the priority well ahead of time and this foresight of the rulers centuries ago made it it a likable city in the deccan region.
James Street Police station Clock tower:
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| commons.wikimedia.org |
Above image: James Street Police station Clock tower - It is on the west side of M.G. Road, Secunderabad, Telangana, A well-known industrialist Seth Ram Gopal in 1900 donated the clock. It is atop the tower in the James Street Police Station building that was built in 1877. As it was declared a heritage monument from the British era in 1998, way back in September 2016 the cops attached to this police station in Ramgopalpet vacated the premises in a hurry. In a dilapidated condition, structurally the Madras-terraced building was weak and could come down at any time.The seepage was so bad the gap between the slab above and the wooden rafters below was wide. Further, the wooden rafters became degraded and weak and could no longer would support the ceiling. So the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) forced the police station to vacate on a short notice. Proper response from the cops was a commendable one.
The whitewashed building with the Nizami PWD seal on it serves as a testimony and a model that was followed by the city's rulers with respect to building regulations till the beginning of the 20th century.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2016/sep/24/Nostalgia-pervades-Ramgopalpet-police-station-1524357.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/Ramgopalpet-police-station-may-be-history/article14648603.ece
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St. Georges Church, Abids, Hyderabad:
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Interior St. Georges Church, Abids, Hyderabad, India
annwilltravel.com
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Interior St. Georges Church, Abids, Hyderabad, India
thehindu.com |
Above image: St. George's Church, once an Anglican church on the Abids. Hyderabad, is the oldest in the city and was built in 1844 AD by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). In 1947, it became part of the Church of South India (CSI), a uniting Church (Anglican, Wesleyan, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.). As the British community grew in size with many of them in the British army stationed in Hyderabad and others in the employ of the ruler, there arose a necessity to have an Anglican church built there to take care of their spiritual needs. The church was built on a piece of land donated by the Nizam in 1836 and it was open to public on 19 September. 1844. In mid August 2010 it turned 143 years old and rededication was held on that day. The church's pipe organ is one of the oldest built in 1887. There is a clock in the facade of the church on the second floor of the tower right below the overhanging eaves. Like many clocks on the towers after 1947 it stopped working due to lack of interest and of technical knowledge to handle the old-type clock mechanism. Details are not available about the clock on the tower, but it is not a big one and is of medium size.
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Charminar Clock Tower:
Above image: The Charminar built on the east bank of the Musi river in the bustling Laad bazaar area of the erstwhile Nawabi city of Hyderabad, Telangana is the foremost tourist destination in the city. Imported from England, the four clocks facing each cardinal direction enhance the grandeur of this imposing old Islamic structure. The clocks were fixed in 1889 during the reign of the the sixth Nizam, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan. The clock facing Gulzar Houz has a gong attached to it which strikes once every half hour and every hour.Initially there was only one clock and three clocks on other faces were added later.
When the clock stopped working 150 years ago, one Wahid Khan, carefully repaired it. Since then, his family members and descendants have been in the business connected with clocks and watches and even now their firm is taking care of the clocks on the Charminar. The Charminar was constructed by Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah about 450 years ag and is made of sandstone, dressed granite and marble. According to the descendant of Wahid Khan after the end of the rule of Nizams the clock that need to be wound every 48 hours stopped working due to total neglect. Added to this problem was the missing of imported spare parts for the clock. In the later years, undaunted the Khan members had the suitable spares made locally and got the clocks on the Charminar going. The ASI took interest to get the clocks going to maintain the aesthetics and tradition. After three generations, this family members are associated with many clocks in the SalarJung Museum, etc., besides Charminar.
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Kachiguda Railway Clock Tower: Hyderabad:
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Kachiguda railway station (under south central Rly)
en.wikipedia.org/ |
Constructed in 1916 by Nizam Asaf Jah VII,, the station was the headquarters of the then Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway. Recently, Kachiguda earned the unique distinction of being the first Energy Efficient ‘A1 Category’ Railway Station on Indian Railways. In 2018, the station was in a state of neglect with plaster on the outer surface of the structure peeling off at various places. The city based historians are furious over the pathetic condition of the structure with dump and mildewed walls, leaking roof and crumbling and exposed bricks on the cupola atop the pillar. A declared heritage site in 2003, built symmetrically in Gothic-Mogul style with four domes atop the four minars and decorative facade with nice jali work supported on 6 columns at four corners. There are two smaller columns in the center on either side of main columns . As for the clock, on the tower no details are available and apparently, it has been there since inception with four clocks facing four directions. I believe efforts will be made to repair the clock when the major repair work is going to be taken up soon.
