Dare House - An Iconic Building of Madras

If you are from Chennai, you would have definitely passed through Parry's corner, if not often, for at least once. It is an important junction and a major landmark of the city. In those days, sometimes people humorously referred to this site as the Paris of India.

The junction has an iconic building called Dare House. The site is named after EID Parry Company, which functioned from this building. EID Parry, in turn, was named after Thomas Parry, who set up this company. Thomas Parry was from Wales and registered himself as a free merchant in India. He started his business activities in Madras (India) in 1788 CE. He had many business partners and John William Dare was prominent among them. The current building, Dare House, is named after this person.

The site where the building stands today had a garden house. Once, the garden house was owned by Arcot Nawab. The property was purchased by Parry in the early 19th century CE. A lot of additions were made to the structure later. The building was demolished, and the current structure was constructed in the then-prevalent art-deco architecture style between 1938 and 1940 CE. The building was named Dare House.

Now, the company and the building are owned by the Murugappa Group of Companies.

Happy travelling.