Sheshadri Memorial Garden – Rose Garden

This rose garden lies towards the south of Cubbon Park. The building of Sheshadri Memorial Hall is an artistic, magnificent structure. It was constructed in the year 1905 as a memorial to Dewan Sheshadri Iyer.

Dewan Sheshadri Iyer, who served the Mysore state as Dewan between 1883 and 1901, was responsible for initiating the first hydro-electric project in Asia, at Shivanasamudra, which began to supply electricity to Bangalore in 1905. In fact Bangalore was the first city in India to get public electric lighting.

Today, Sheshadri Memorial Hall houses the state central library. The foreground of the building is well-maintained and a vast collection of roses is grown here. The rose garden contains different coloured roses which bloom for almost 6 months in a year from July to September and again from January to March. This garden boasts of a large variety of roses. During the blooming season, the rose garden is very beautiful to look at in the background of Sheshadri Memorial. There is a statue of Sheshadri Iyer in the rose garden. The statue was designed by Robert Colton and erected in the year 1913. It was unveiled by Lord Hardinge, then Viceroy of India. There is a very vast and long avenue leading from Hudson Circle to the Rose Garden which gives a ne vista. The avenue bifurcates at the end and run all along the rose garden at either side. Right from the beginning to end, all along the avenue, at either side colourful cannas are grown in beds. At equal intervals, in these beds, tall cook pine trees are grown, which lend aesthetic charm to the area and also to Sheshadri Memorial Hall which dominates the whole scene.

Image source: Wikipedia