EconomyEast India Company rule

Imperial Hotel opens in Madras

· Taj Connemara

Imperial Hotel opens in Madras
Mark Fahey, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The Imperial Hotel, later the Connemara, opened in 1854 and is the oldest functioning hotel in Chennai.

The site of the hotel was a house that John Binny bought from the Nawab of Arcot in 1799. In 1854 the Imperial Hotel was built there under the proprietorship of Triplicane Rathinavelu Mudaliar. It was renamed the Albany in 1886 and later the Connemara. Now the Taj Connemara, it is regarded as the oldest functioning hotel in the city.

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