n 1772, a survey of the city fixed the limit of the Esplanade with six
boundary stones. At least one of these 20 feet tall masonry obelisks
remains to this day — at Moor Street near Dare House, cared for by
Parry & Co., announcing in granite the Esplanade's boundary as of
January 1, 1773. In 1775 there was a proposal to plant a hedge right
around the limits of Madras. The proposal was dropped, but a perusal
of the survey indicates the Madras limits at the time: the Adyar River
in the south, up to a point near the present Mount Road-Chamier's
Road junction, then along Mount Road and Nungambakkam Tank
Road, then around Chetput and Vepery and so to the sea at a point
a mile distant from Black Town's northern wall. There still survives a
northern boundary stone on Monegar Choultry Street.
The last time, in John Company's day, that the limits of Madras were
fixed, was on November 2, 1798 when they were formally announced
by the Governor-in-Council and a new map was drawn. The limits to
the south and west were as proposed in 1775, but the western limits
now moved north, past Chetput to take in Kilpauk and Perambur.
From north of Perambur,
the northern boundary ran
to the
sea,
incorporating Tondiarpet. Thus, by the beginning of the 19th Century,
Madras City had almost taken its present shape.
When Madras celebrated its tercentenary in 1939, the only major
change in the City's extent from the 1798 limits was the inclusion of
Mambalam, in 1923, making the railway line the western boundary.