Thoppil House looks picture perfect on a hot summer morning. The sights and sounds of busy Palayam nearby seem a million miles away as you walk down the by-lane, off Vania Street, into the stately homestead. The colonial bungalow with its sunny yellow exterior and its neatly landscaped grounds, situated in the shadow of two high rises, is over 120 years old – 127 to be exact – and is home to the Thoppil family. It is currently occupied by Saramma John, wife of the late T.A. John, who bought the house in 1975, and her younger son, Tony John, lead vocalist of rock band Avial.
The house, presently situated on 35 cents of land, was built in the late 1880s – early 1890s by M.A. Philip. “He was a member of the Mulamoottil family of Tholassery in Thiruvalla and he was, I understand, into insurance,” says Saramma. Incidentally, Philip is Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupati’s maternal great-grandfather. “In his time, the house was called ‘Saradom’ – named for his wife, coincidentally, also called Saramma,” adds Saramma. Tony chips in: “The house is one of three mansions that were owned by the Mulamoottils. The one in front was torn down and a hotel was constructed in its stead and the other, situated at the back of our house and which was built almost at the same time, now functions as a men’s hostel. My father purchased the property – 28 and a half cents – for the then princely sum of Rs. One and a half lakh,” says Tony, as he shows us around the house.
There is no verandah and the entrance leads directly to a rectangular-shaped lobby with high wooden ceilings and shining mosaic floors, leading to a tastefully decorated bedroom full of antique furniture on one side and Tony’s sound-proof recording studio on the other. The lobby and the recording studio may be familiar to cinephiles as it was here that some prominent scenes of Salt n’ Pepper were shot. “The original entrance was through the east. It was rather inconvenient as one had to skirt the side of the house to enter the building and my father had the verandah enclosed and converted it into a bedroom. If you look at the windows you can still see the stained glass on its head and hooks for the cane mats, which used to hang from the arches of the veranda,” explains the rocker.
Walk further into the house and you come across a stunning wooden staircase with wire grills, yet another original feature of the house. Pray, what secrets and memories hide in the cupboard under the stairs? The house, explains Tony, was renovated extensively in 1984 but done so without disturbing most of the original structure. Only a few windows here and there, particularly on the first floor, were enclosed and a couple of terraces were also enclosed and converted into bedrooms/bathrooms. There was a decrepit one storey, tile-roofed kitchen section that extended out from the rear of stairwell. It was torn down and in its place now stands a two-storey building with the kitchen and dining area on the ground floor and bedrooms on top. “For almost 25 years after my father bought it, the old section of the house functioned as a men’s hostel and only a decade or so ago was it converted back into the family home,” says Tony.
Go up the winding staircase and you come to an equally spacious lobby, which leads to several bedrooms (in all there are 12 bedrooms in the house). Each room is as impressive as the next, again full of antique beds and tables, chairs, umbrella stands, dressing tables and collectibles. The entire first floor has been carpeted, sadly covering the original wooden slats on the floor. “It was necessary. The carpet muffles the sound of feet on hardwood. The creaks and groans became too disturbing at night,” explains Tony. Thankfully, the family has retained the same wooden slats on the roof, though giving them a lick of paint. “The house also has an attic that’s as big as the lobby and is a weird and wonderful space to get lost in. It is currently occupied by a family of palm civets!” he adds with a laugh.
The Thoppil family have kept the surrounding garden as immaculate as the house and its interiors, with a variety of shrubs, trees and flowering plants, and even a picturesque pond with water lilies.
(A fortnightly column on houses in and around the city that are more than 50 years old.)
