Memories of South Parade

Memories of South Parade
Clive Ross, an old Bangalorean, recalls days when horse carriages trotted past the City’s prime road.
Deccan Herald

Clive Ross is just 53 and yet the property on M G Road that his family owned for generations is unrecognisable from his childhood days in the 1950’s. Clive is down in Bangalore on a holiday with his wife Jennie, also a Bangalorean, from Perth, West Australia.

Clive schooled at the St Joseph’s Boys’ High School and Jennie went to the Sacred Heart Girls’ High School. Their bond with Bangalore is so strong that they have to make a trip back every other year to get their Bangalore “fix.” The property on M G Road is sold today, but Clive shared his memories of South Parade, as it was called back then, and the huge property which was in the family from mid 1800’s.

From the lane alongside the old Liberty Theatre right up to what is Brown Shop today, was the property that the Ross family owned for generations. “Based on the original documents I know that the land was granted by the colonel commanding Bangalore to a Lieutanent Calder on July 9, 1819. Subsequently my great great grandfather Benjamin Milbourne Ross and his wife Helen, bought the property. He must have been wealthy as there still is a plaque in St Mark’s Cathedral which bears his name since he donated money there,” says Clive. The property consisted of 4 and 5 South Parade and 13, 14, 15 Church Street.

“My great grandfather Clarence Lumsden Milbourne Ross inherited the property and at some stage sold what became Lake View Restaurant and GK Vale. My earliest memory is that Lake View had ice-creams where I went for treats. The property was subsequently inherited by my grandfather Clarence Melvin Milbourne Ross and he was the one who started the Bangalore Ham Shop. His legacy of the delicious Bangalore sausages still stands and people from all over the world still remember and savour my grandfather’s recipe,” adds Clive.

Clive remembers that the tenants in his grandfather’s property were GEC, Castrol and EGK. His father had a brother and two sisters and so when his father inherited the estate it had to be divided between the children. His father Malcolm Clarence Milbourne Ross passed away recently.

Clive remembers his grandfather had a big Dodge which he drove down South Parade and there wasn’t another car in sight. In the late 1950’s he remembers sitting up on what was called ‘the ride’ above the road in those days and watching the gharries drawn by horses go by. “South Parade was an absolutely perfect Road with a clear and wide pavement. I used to run down the pavement to the shop near Imperial Theatre and buy lollipops, cigarette sweets, bulls-eyes, rat sweets and we could get a lot for a few paise.”

In their garden, they had jackfruit, guava, mango and loquat trees which used to give them all their supply of fruit. In fact, Clive remembers the garden right upto 1971 after which the family was forced to sell and move. The begum who owned Liberty Theatre allowed them in to see movies for free as they were neighbours and he has a strong memory of how she would drive a Buick convertible with great style.

She once dared a magician to drive around the City blindfolded in her car and he did without mishap. However, Clive’s fondest memory is when he met his wife Jennie when she and her family rented the cottage 49 Church Street from his dad. “I took one look at her and fell headlong in love,” he says unabashedly. Today the family lives in Perth with their two girls, Tanya and Tara, and treasure the memories of Bangalore which will never fade away.