ABSTRACT
Chapter 6, ‘Housing’, discusses the role of housing in urban economic development. Housing is at the core of urbanisation. Housing shortages, acquisitions and repairs, evacuees’ problems, housing markets, progress of the housing activities, different types of houses built in the city of Madras, and military housing and maintenance are noted here. A city is made up of houses. The quality of its infrastructure is determined mainly by the quality of its houses, which in turn is determined by the incomes and tastes of the dwellers given the geographical, environmental, and climatic conditions. Thus, housing is both a contributor and an index of economic development. Some of the economic issues are the land and other input prices, sales and transactions costs, taxes, and problems related to the infrastructure. Housing became an urgent problem when the English entered the ‘half demolished’ city in Aug. 1749. They began to repair the damaged properties as an immediate measure. Being unable to meet the bulging demand for shelter in the winter, they resorted to acquisitions by evacuating their enemies and ‘French friends and supporters’ from the Fort and asking the Armenians to sell their houses only to the English. Few non–English Europeans were spared in this process so as to keep away the French in Pondy, preventing them from obtaining any confidential information of Madras and its defence establishments. They gave prominence to accommodating the growing military in the newly built quarters. All the houses of Madras were environmentally designed and built in the famous Madras style of architecture with local materials. A number of stately public buildings were added to meet the needs of the growing administrative establishments.
