Murphy Town, Bangalore

Murphy Town is a suburb located near Bangalore Cantonment, India. It is one of the oldest planned suburbs of the Cantonment, and was earlier known as Knoxpet, and was later changed to Murphy Town. It is located North of Ulsoor, with Murphy Road running along its periphery, and is also bounded by Old Madras Road and Kensington Road, with part of Kensington Road overlooking Ulsoor Lake Madras Sappers.KnoxpetIn the early 1900s the suburb was known as Knoxpet, named after Lt. Col. Stuart George Knox, who served as Resident of Mysore and Coorg between 1 November 1921 to 31 October 1922, and earlier as Resident of Baroda State. The suburb was settled since 1865 by Tamil workers such as tannery workers, leather workers, pottery workers, etc. The houses at Knoxpet had poor sanitation facilities and generally poorly built, and resembled a slum. The Bangalore Plague of 1898, resulted in the government deciding to demolish, rebuild and re-settle the suburb. However actual process was started only in 1923. In 1937, the suburb was renamed as Murphy Town, after W H Murphy, MBE - Executive Engineer, Municipal Council, Bangalore Civil and Military Station.W H MurphyW H Murphy, served as the Executive Engineer, Municipal Council, Bangalore Civil and Military Station for nearly 25 years. Murphy is credited with designing the sanitation works at Austin Town, and the underground drainage works at (then known as BlackPalli). He is responsible for designing and execution of some of Bangalore Cantonment's prominent buildings, such as Russell Market, which is named after T B Russell who served as Municipal Commissioner, Bangalore. He also designed and built the Friend In Need Society and Colonel Hill High School, with buildings known as Cobb Home for the Aged (after H V Cobb, Resident of Mysore) and Girdlestone Nursing Home (after C E R Girdlestone, Resident of Mysore), inaugurated W P Barton (British Resident). Murphy was also credited with inventing the Dog Electrocute, which was used to kill stray dogs painlessly, and extensively used in the Bangalore Cantonment since November 1925. Murphy was also one of the founding members of the Rotary Club of Bangalore (founded 27 October 1934).