Today, passing through Russell Market is a hurdle race between vehicles and the occasional livestock and stray dogs, battling to get to the vegetables and meat that will make it to their plates. But look past the hassle that surrounds it, and what stands is a majestic 99-year-old structure built by some of the city’s consequential architects and administrators, at a spot that has served the area’s residents for nearly a century prior to that. Recently, the Bengaluru Central City Corporation took note of this part of the city’s heritage, floating a `56 crore tender for its substantial reconstruction.
Reportedly, the intention is to retain the market’s old-world charm through its front facade while improving functionality inside the premises. That look, explains conservation architect Roshini M, comes from the market’s indo-saracenic style of architecture, unusual for the time in Bengaluru. “The architectural style of Russell Market was different from other public buildings built during the time. The extensive front facade with arched panels has a central entrance marked by buttressed piers with octagonal chhatris or dome shaped pavilions on top. It also has square blocks at the end with a high parapet and a squat dome. Others like KR Market follow a very European colonial style, but here you see Rajasthani Rajput architecture and Islamic architecture’s influences,” she says.
During colonial times, Shivajinagar, known as Blackpally, was where staff who worked for the British living in the cantonment lived. History writer Roopa Pai explains, “The two high ridges were MG Road and Cubbon Road, along which the British built their houses, the Cantonment and Parade Grounds. Beyond that, downhill to Shivajinagar and Cavalry Road was where the staff lived, many used to work in butchery and tannery to cater to the need for meat and saddles.” The name ‘Blackpally’ itself has several possible origins, notes Pai, “It may come from ‘Bili Akki Palli’ (white rice market), from John Blakiston, who was the architect of the Cantonment or it could have racist origins because of the ‘natives’ who lived there.”
Roshini notes that other markets also had their intended customers, saying, “Johnson Market, often called the ‘poor cousin of Russell Market’ was meant for the Anglo-Indians and Eurasians, while Murphy Town Market was for a mix of Anglo-Indians, Eurasians and Britishers.”
Long before the current structure was designed by the chief engineer of the British administration WH Murphy (after whom Murphy Town is named), and inaugurated by Ismail Sait in 1927, there was an older open air market in the area, explains Raksha Nagaraj, founder of Bengaluru Prayana. “There was an open-air market called New Market around the 1820s, consisting of a clock tower, a square and shops. Today, there is no clock tower but spaces which show that there were clocks in that area. There are also markings on some of those pillars of a British firm Dorman Long (known for steel works and bridge building).”
Near Russell Market stands an electric lamp which was one of the around 100 lit across the city in 1905, powered by the Shivanasamudra hydroelectric plant. Although unverified, these may have been the first electrical street lamps in Asia.