Fort Kochi’s Malabar House Provides A Home Away From Home Amidst A Rich Historical Legacy

I don’t remember the first time I went to Fort Kochi as someone who lived on the outskirts of the city. But ever since that first trip, I have kept going back. There is this beautiful slowness to the locale that begs even the most wired person to calm down, at least for a few minutes. And soon enough, hours have passed. There are no instant delivery services that cater to your every whim in Fort Kochi. Until a few years ago, even Uber was a tall order. But the serenity of life here is exactly why so many people fall in love with Fort Kochi and keep coming back, year after year.

Though times may have changed, one facade that has remained unchanged since the 90s is the Malabar House Hotel. But even before it became a definitive building in the image of today’s Fort Kochi, it had a vibrant history. According to the Malabar House’s website, the property has been a part of the documented history of Fort Cochin’s historical fabric. They mentioned how “its history dates back to 1755, when Jan Herman Clausing, a Dutch, bought the property from Mathew Henrich Beyls. Subsequently owned by spice traders, tea traders & bankers, in 1997 it became Fort Cochin’s first boutique heritage hotel.”

While this speaks volumes about the property's legacy, there is a lot more that is still local knowledge. The property was once the residence of British port officer J.E. Winckler, who is remembered for many reasons, but especially as being the one who took the initiative to erect a grand pillar in remembrance of the Great Fire of Cochin, in 1890 that is still standing tall at the beach. According to Oneal Sabu (aka @fcboy13), a local food anthropologist who conducts community tables and heritage walks around the city, the Great Fire of Cochin was a pivotal moment in the history of his hometown.

But after the British Raj fell, the property changed many hands as earlier mentioned. Eventually, when it was owned by Standard Chartered Bank in the 80s, it was bought out by its current owner, a German architect and passionate art enthusiast Joerg Drechsel and his partner Txuku, who is of Spanish origin. Today, the Malabar House Hotel is one of the rare few properties in the vicinity to be part of the acclaimed Relais and Chateaux organisation, that offers get aways in idyllic settings and immersive experiences, and serve up the best of local, haute cuisine. According to Sasikumar K, Manager of Resort and Sales at Malabar Escapes, Joerg Drechsel came to Fort Kochi in the 70s, fell in love with the town, kept coming back and eventually bought out the gorgeous heritage property. He took his time and paid close attention to the smallest of details, to restore it and added an extra segment to it.

As an architect who deeply loved art and culture, he blended his many loves and distilled them beautifully at the Malabar House Hotel. He added a spiral staircase that leads up to the upper levels of the original structure while retaining the rest as much as possible. In 1997, it opened as Fort Kochi’s first boutique hotel, perhaps even getting the ball rolling. Today, it is teeming with heritage properties and heritage-adjacent spaces that are now hotels, cafes, art galleries and even concept stores. 

The beauty of our land’s culture has never been about dripping displays of opulence, but rather about understated luxury and an appreciation for beautiful works of craft. This same thought has been translated in many ways at The Malabar House Hotel - retaining the key aspects of the heritage building, and adding on a section that adds on to the property, without taking away from its essence. But even beyond that, there are a million beautiful details that capture the vibrant history of Fort Kochi and Kerala that are captured - from the way the staff are dressed in Sarees and they light a Nilavilakk to welcome you, to the way the staff use Karpooram (Camphor) at dusk to chase away mosquitoes and even have a Njalipoovan variant of banana in the fruit plate they keep in the rooms of the guests. T

With the expansion of the original structure in converting this into Malabar House, the beautiful orchard becomes the focal point of the entire property. The swimming pool here is not stark blue, as one is used to, because it was paved with oxide and not using tiles as is typical with most pools these days. According to Sasikumar K, “The founder of Malabar House wanted to stay as true to original architecture that would’ve been used traditionally. So he retained as much of the original property as he could, and instead added an extension to the structure. The original structure is not fundamentally changed and has only been modified to best suit the needs of the guests. But the segment that was added on, left a little more room for experimentation. The new building is hence the space where Divine, the properties beer and wine lounge, with a more modern appearance and offerings, are observable."

But in talking meals, the Malabar Junction restaurant within the property is another point where local flavour is truly embraced. The catches of the day, and constantly evolving menu speaks to the basics of staying authentic in dining - using fresh produce and fares and changing the items to suit the seasons. 

A core practice at all properties that belong to the international Relais & Chateaux organisation, there is a sense of embracing the authenticity of Fort Kochi and Kerala that comes through, when you look around the Malabar House hotel. From the beautiful Croton plants and local trees that dot the property instead of manicured lawns and flowering bushes, to the Manichithrapoottu (a type of ornate locks that were seen in traditional Kerala mansions), to even using local ‘junk wood’ of sorts called Karimban to create their furniture - Joerg Drechsel has been continuously working towards making sure Malabar House goes beyond tokenistic representations of what Kerala is. There are no random pictures of Kathakali and Elephants for the sake of it, but rather original artwork salvaged from temples or collected by the founder during his travels around the state. The presence of curated art from old temples to designing original furniture and crafted locally, all speak to the founders’ personal commitment towards promoting sustainable practices in the hospitality industry, as well. 

In designing each of the 17 rooms, they sought to pay homage to varying forms of traditional furniture design - from some rooms that feature four poster beds that require you to use a wooden step stool in their deluxe rooms, to those with beautiful swing beds on the balcony that one could lounge on in their Roof Garden Suites. Marble floors and tiles are non-existent, rather the rooms feature mosaic and/or red-oxide or black-oxide flooring, yet another nod to the traditional Kerala architecture. The way they retain coolness by virtue of the materials is a big reminder of the old traditional homes I’d visited as a child. Today, most of them have been replaced by contemporary architecture - beautiful still, but there are very few remnants of traditional architecture that are retained, especially residential properties.

Staying at the Malabar House for those from outside Kerala, would be a great way to discover Kerala up close and personal. But for those who are Malayalis, it might perhaps be one of the ways to rediscover the charm of a way of life that we have chosen to move past, but should perhaps consider reclaiming.

Beyond everything, there is some sort of special standing the property has, in how it was the first of its kind to offer boutique experiences that went beyond the impersonal. This in turn is perhaps why the staff at Malabar House shared their experience of having guests who’ve been visiting them year after year, and even asked to stay in their "usual rooms" that has become their home away from home in Fort Kochi. 

Follow Malabar House Hotel here. 

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