Whitefield, Bengaluru: A settlers' haven that now hosts outbound techies

Deepa Peck's ancestors were among the first non-Indian settlers of Whitefield in the 1880s. She remembers the Whitefield of the 1970s as a college-going youngster: The "sleepy little hamlet“, which became her home in 1991, was "a geographically wellplanned and geometrically perfect town with a close-knit community .“ Most of the colonial residences and landmarks have now made way for high-rise apartments and IT companies.

Whitefield was the brainchild of David Emmanuel Starkenburgh White, founder and president of the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association, Mysuru and Kodagu."He envisioned a self-sustained community for Anglo-Indians that would be farm-centric,“ said Krupa Rajangam, a conservation architect whose ongoing project is to trace the history of Whitefield.

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White was granted 3,750 acres by Chamaraja Wadiyar IX, Maharaja of Mysuru, in April 1882. He transformed it into a cheery , fun-loving place that would earn the status of a weekend getaway for Bengaluru in the 1920s.


The 129-year-old church (left); Meer Saheb’s General Stores, set up in 1915, is facing demolition

“It is said that residents grew fruit, ragi and other millets here.There were only two buses to and from Shivajinagar (residents shopped at Russell Market), one in the morning and evening. If you missed those, you had to stay back in Bengaluru,“ Rajangam said.

While its residences were colonial, like those in the Cantonment, Whitefield was planned in concentric circles, unlike other towns that were laid out in squares.

At the heart of it was a circular open space called `Village Green'.Some old-time residents reminisce how the area, now divided into a playground and a park, was once overgrown with weeds where jack als and hyenas roamed.

Around it was the Inner Circle Road radiating from which were wedge-shaped three-fourth-acre plots for residences. Between ever house were lanes connected to the Outer Circle, and the farmlands were beyond. Today , the plots have been broken into many apartments and high-rises, though the geographical layout remains intact.

Among the few remaining houses and prominent landmarks are the Whitefield Memorial Church, the Whitefield Club and the Waverly Inn. “The church, constructed in 1886 by Anglican priest of St John's, Bengaluru, is perhaps the oldest surviving structure of Whitefield,“ said Peck.

"Since it was the only church then, Christians of all denominations used to pray there. Then, Mrs Rose White, wife of DE White, requested the village headman to construct a Catholic Church on the Whitefield Main Road." Rose was laid to rest at the church cemetery.

Stories of Winston Churchill staying at Waverly Inn are an integral part of Whitefield's oral history.Few, however, know that the Whitefield Club -land for which was donated by a certain Mrs Greenham in 1905 -was originally The Settler's Institute, named after the now-defunct Settlers Association.