A walk through the history of Mint street

Mint street is one of the oldest in Chennai and also believed to be the longest stretch in the city.

In the 17th century, a Jewish cemetery was established on the street by a Portuguese Jewish trader, Jacques de Paivia.

It was later moved to Lloyd’s Road and became the Lloyd’s Road Jewish Cemetery. In the early 18th century, washers and bleachers employed by the British East India Company for its cloth business settled around the street, giving it the name ‘Washers’ Street’.

Several of them were Telugu speaking, followed by the middlemen or dubashes (men who knew two languages), chiefly Telugu-speaking Komutti and Beri Chettis. By the 1740s, Gujarathis and people from the Saurashtra region closely associated with the cloth trade settled down in the area. Soon, it also became home to Marwaris, who were chiefly pawn brokers and money lenders.

Mint Street thus became a confluence of various language speakers, which has remained so till date.

In 1841–1842, the East India Company moved its coin-making facility to this street, and since then the street became known as Mint Street. The city’s first ticketed Carnatic concert was held in this street in the 1880s.

In 1889, the Hindu Theological School was established on this street, where the legendary C Saraswathi Bai gave her first Harikatha performance in 1909, becoming the first woman to do so. The school was visited by Mahatma Gandhi in 1896.