#AtoZChallenge - Mayo Hall

(This month, each day, except the four Sundays, I will be blogging about interesting features associated with Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, as part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge)

This is not a hall but a building. It gets its name from Lord Mayo, who served as the fourth Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872. He was christened Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, and he was generally referred to as Lord Mayo in India.

His tenure as viceroy came to a tragic end when he was stabbed to death, while on a visit to the jail in Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, by a Pathan prisoner named Sher Ali, to avenge the death of his father in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842.

Image courtesy: Bangalore Tourism

The two-storied Mayo Hall was built in 1883 and stood all alone in regal majesty atop an elevated plane giving people a panoramic view of the surroundings in the east of the city. It has since undergone multiple renovations.

In 2011, a museum in the memory of Kempegowda, the 16th-century chieftain of the Vijayanagar Empire considered to be the founder of Bangalore, was opened on the first floor. But two years ago, it was temporarily shut following a dispute over which government department should administer and maintain it. Most of the lower floor of Mayo Hall houses the city and civil courts.

Here is a description of the Mayo Hall by Meera Iyer, convenor, INTACH Bengaluru, and a researcher, in The Hindu, Sept 27, 2019

One characteristic of Renaissance Revival is the lavish ornamentation of windows. Each of Mayo Hall's first-floor windows is a delicious confection. Each has either a triangular or arched pediment, with mouldings supported on curved consoles or brackets lovingly decorated with acanthus leaves. Each window is framed by decorative pilasters, a small floral scroll on top, and a balustraded ledge below. Ground floor windows are differently treated with flat hoods, simple pilasters and unpretentious consoles. The division between the floors is accentuated by a belt course decorated with a Greek meander, a popular geometric motif in Western art.

Today the building is overshadowed by the 25-floor commercial complex Public Utility Buildings on one side and the elevated metro rail running in front of it.

(Join me tomorrow, we head to a hill station)