Story Coach| Storyteller| Pitch Consultant| Founder@Storywallahs| Keynote speaker | Brand Storytelling| Storytelling Workshops| Data Storytelling
Why is the Ulsoor Lake called ‘Ulsoor’ lake? The names of some cities and places have very interesting origin stories. Ever wondered what’s the story behind the name Ulsoor? The magnificent Ulsoor lake is a landmark in Bangalore. This is where many people living in central Bangalore come to walk, enjoy a boat ride, practice rowing and catch some fresh air. The MG Road, close to the lake has an iconic restaurant called 'The LakeView Milk Bar’. The name came about as one could see the Ulsoor lake from this place on MG Road in the 1940’s. Ulsoor lake is a man made lake built by Kempe Gowda during the 17th century. Sir Lewin Bentham Bowring, a British officer, later expanded and renovated the lake to its current form. Ulsoor was the centre of the cantonment town and also served as the ‘Dhobi Ghat’. The area around the lake used to be forest land and there was a large Jackfruit orchard near the lake. The Kannada name for jackfruit is Halasu and Ooru means home – the original name of the lake was Halasuru. Even today, old timers refer to the area by the original name, with an ‘h’. During the time of the British rule, it got anglicized to Ulsoor. Hope you enjoyed the story behind the name.
I’ve lived for 5 years in Bangalore right next to this lake mostly in the Army area, and while I knew about Halasuru, this is the first time I’m getting to know the story behind the name! Thanks for sharing Ameen, and for bringing back my memories from BLR. 🙏
Interesting story Ameen Haque! I am new to the city of Bangalore, even I wondered about the name ulsoor.
Nice to know. About the anglicised part - I find some old Bangaloreans having difficulty in pronouncing ‘h’ in the words starting with it (I gew up in Mangalore and I have many “observations” about how Kannada is spoken by Bangaloreans). So the locals could have turned Halasuru into Ulsoor too.
For many years I called it Halasuru (as I love Ripe sweet Jackfruits) but time and then auto / bmtc made me call it Ulsoor 😀
Ever since I first visited this place, I always had this question and was curious to know… this place is so serene. thanks for enlightening. Very well put :)
Shoba Narayan you might be aware?
Lived in Bangalore for 17 years missing it, almost I used to travel around #UlsoorLake occasionally and saw its good and bad condition.
Societal and Environmental Capital | Climate Change | Sustainability | ESG | ITC Mission Sunehra Kal
1yThanks for sharing this. And bringing back memories of Lakeview.