BRITISH ARCHITECTURE

IN INDIA 1857-1947
The Sir George Birdwood Me1norial Lecture by
GAVIN STAMP, MA, PhD
delivered 10 the Commonwealth Secrion of the Society
on Tuesday 101h February 1981, with Penelope Chetwode in the Chair

TH£ CHAIRMAN: The history of taste is a fascinat ~ now come round to thinking that the Victoria
ing study, both in general terms and in the case of Terminus in Bombay is one of the g1eat buildings
an individual. Up to the age of seve.n teen my world of the world - Robert Byron and I were revolted by
was preny well bound by horses and hunting. Then it when we were young - it is one of the very few
I was sent to a finishing $Chool in Florence where Gothic buildings crowned by a dome. Recently an
the Director, Mrs. L'E.strange., opened· up new architect friend of mine, Ian Phillips (who is with
horizons for me - u:hat a lot we owe to good us tonight), and I spent a thrilling three hours
teachers! - and I went mad about Renajssance art studying it - to use a dreadful modern phrase - 'in
in all its branches. I became a purist as so many of depth'. We were amply rewarded by finding
us do at that age and thought any art after about crocodile gargoyles, a tremendous variety of in-
•sso was nor robe tolerated. During the Christmas tricately carved capitaJs, and were spellbound by
holidays of 1927 I went to Naples with my mother, the interior S1aircasc which is on a colossal scale and
who liked rococo, and when she went into the crowned by the dome. I would like Gavin to give us
church of San Francesco I sat outside because I a lecture on this building alone: but as it is he will
looked upon rococo as being the height of bad taste. only be able 10 show us 1wo or three slides of it.
Thirty years later I retumed to Naples, and having Gavin told me that he first became interested in
grown more catholic in outlook., I longed to see architecture when be was at school and read John
San Francesco, only to find that it had been bombed Betjeman's First and I.AJt Loves. For his parr, my
flat in the war and rebuilt in a severe modern husband considers him one of the best of our young
Gothic style much to the satisfaction of the friars, writers on the sub;cct, so it is a case of a mutual
and one of them remarked to me that previously it admiration society! It is to me totally incompre-
was 'come un teatro•. hensible why some art historians to-day write in an
In the 1920s and '3os, of course, wj all thought almost structuralist way so that ir is quite impossible
Victorian architecture was perfectly frightful. We to understand them. The function of such a person
only had to glance ar a late Victorian building either is surely not only to be accurate in his description
here or in India to write it off as being in appaUingly but to inspire his reader with a desire to sec the
bad taste, and we were particularly ashamed of the object he is describing. Such a man was my great
'monStrosities1 for which the Brirish were respon- hero Emile Male., author of Rome et s.es Vieilles
sible in Bombay. It was not until I married my Eglise.s. With all his learning be writes so simply,
husband John Bctjeman in 1933 that he started 10 yet with such a love and understanding of his
educate me and to teach me how to pick out the subject that he cransfers his enthusiasm to bis
good from the bad in nineteanh-century architec- re.ader. To-day, Kenneth Clark possesses the same
ture. Now nothing anno>•s me more than when priceless gift; so, I think you will agree, does John
somebody sees a really bad Victorian building and Betjeman, and our friend, Mildred Archer, who is
roars· with laughter and says: 'Wouldn't John aJso with us tonight, and among rhe younger
Bctjcman like it I' Victorian architecture, like all gene.ration we can most certainly include our present
other schools of art, ha$ its good and bad. I have lecturer, Gavin Stamp.

The following l.:cturt, which was illustrated, u•as then delivered.

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JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP ARTS PROCEEDINGS

FAR as I am aware, the last time the sub- interest was stirred by the idea of New Delhi,

A ject of British architecture in India was it was largely ignored in Britain and was
discussed in this ball was one hundred generally condemned by those who interested
and eight years ago, when T. Roger Smith themselves in India. In 1886, Rudyard Kip-
addressed the Society on the subject of 'Archi- ling's most interesting father, John Locltwood
tectural Art in India'. Smith, an interesting if (1837-1911), wrote that the PWD and its
rather dim architect, had been out in Bombay to 'ltighly centralized departmental system, wlticb
supervise the erection of bis design for the new prescribes the form of all buildings in one
European General Hospital. His answer to the uniform pattern, is fatal to right movement in
momentous and central question, 'What sort of art'.• E. B. Havell (1861-1934), historian,
architecture ought we to employ in India ?', teacher and polemicist, wrote in bis book on
was firm : 'We ought, like the Romans and the Indian Architecture (2nd edition, 1927) that 'The
Mohammedans, to take our national style with merits or demerits of Anglo-Indian buildings
us. Our buildings ought to hold up a high from an academic point of view as ''designsn, is
standard of European art. They ought to be an irrelevant question which need not be
European, both as a rallying point for ourselves, discussed since they all fail in different degrees
and as raising a distinctive symbol of our in the essentials of real arcltitecture ... The
presence to be beheld with respect and even Imperial School of Building, inspired or hypno-
with admiration by the natives of the country.'' tized by the art of ancient Rome, bas had two
In the ensuing discussion, William Emerson, epoch-malting opportunities, one at Calcutta,
another architect who had designed buildings in another at Delhi; but so far it has not dimin-
India, begged to differ. He did not think the ished but rather increased, the number of those
conquerors should carry a new style of archi- who desire the ruin of the Empire.•• While that
tecture into the conquered nation; rather, he great writer and critic, Robert Byron, I am
thought, we should follow the Mohammedans sorry to say, could claim in 1931 that 'The
who adapted their style to Indian conditions. nineteenth century devised nothing lower than
In the period 1857 to 1947, European the municipal buildings of British India. Their
fashions in architecture changed with bewilder- ugliness is positive,daemonic. The traveller feels
ing rapidity and the Western interpretation of that the English have set the mark of the beast on
traditional Indian architecture became much a land full of artistry and good example.''
more sopltisticated, but the debate between Well, I shall try and defend the English this
Smith and Emerson continued, in essence, to evening. Each of those writers was partisan, in
concern British architects in India for the next one way or another; to-day I think we can see
seven decades. The conflict between the advo- the British achievement in India both with
cates of Eastern and Western styles flared up more objectivity and in perspective. But I am
with particular intensity over the question of obliged to do this from a purely European point
the new capital at Delhi, proposed in 1911. The of view. I feel not a little diffidence in speaking
victorious lobby, which asserted both the poli- about India in front of many who must know
tical necessity and the aesthetic superiority of that country so much better than I do. With
Western Classicisim, was furiously attacked by my limited knowledge of India, I am qualified
those who believed it was the duty of the British as an architectural historian merely to assess
Government to encourage native traditions and British buildings there of the nineteenth and
to develop native iypes of architecture. twentieth centuries by the standards prevailing
What is rather ironic is that I should be in this country. For better or for worse, it was a
invited to discuss Imperial British architecture colonial architecture - but so, we can remind
in India in a lecture held annually in memory of ourselves, was that of our Norman cathedrals.
Sir George Birdwood, a man who did so much My heroes are official British architects,
to study and to encourage traditional Indian arts many but not all of them working for the
and crafts - crafts which William Morris, John Government, and some of them sympathetic, to
Lockwood Kipling and E. B. Havell, all friends a greater or lesser degree, to the indigenous
of traditional India, believed were being cor- architecture of India. Their work between 1857
rupted and suppressed by official British policy and the end of the Empire is a largely unex-
and by the methods employed by the Public plored field in which much research needs to be
Works Department in India. done. My starting date is both an obvious and a
The PWD was responsible for the erection useful one wltich not only marks the beginning
of most of the official British architecture I shall of direct Imperial rule in India but which also
be illustrating this evening. This is an archi- allows me to proceed beyond the scope of the
tecture which has had few friends; until public only published study of European architecture
358
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN (NOIA 1857-1947
in India, that by Mr. Sten Nilsson, who ended rhe uchitect designs - that is, makes pleasing pic-
his survey in 1850.• Furthermore, the Public tures of buildings - but has no concern with the
Works Department was established under the carrying our of any idea& these may convey. The
architect •designs•, bur it is the •engineer' who
central government in 1854. Before that dare builds. Again, an architect is concerned with only
public works had been carried out by the Corps the external appearance of a building, and not with
of Military Engineers, in Bengal, in Madras its internal arrangement. Observe, it is implied that
and in Bombay, which was amalgamated with the interior of a bujlding has no appearance, and
the Royal Engineers in 1862. Although in the the exterior no arrangement! I remember once,
186os civilian engineers were beginning to be when the design of an important town hall was
recruited, most of the burden of public works in entrusted to me, a building to stand in the narrow
India in the nineteenth century fell on military streets of a busy •bazaar', that a message came to me
engineers - which may explain why the British from a high quarter to this effect:- 'Do ask Mr.
Begg, whatever he docs, ro make it castellated'! ...
architectural profession took comparatively
The opinion of a civilian of over twelve year,'
little interest in India. It is a curious fact that standing, or, say, of a Lieutenant-Colonel, wiU out-
so many competent, ornate and impressive weigh that of any architect even on an arcbilcc-
public buildings in India were the work of tural point. A full Colonel's or a Collector's, will
military men with, apparently, no architectural make or mar rhe success of a cathedral. A General -
training and who are now rather shadowy above., say, the rank of Brigadier, - certainly a
figures. General H. St Clair Wilkins, RE, and Lieutenant-Governor, may blast the reputation of
General J. A. Fuller, RB, for instance, who did an archicec-r-member of the Royal Academy.•
so much work in Bombay, were not considered
by the Buildet or the Building News to merit Yet, notwithstanding all this, a remarkable
obituaries. number of fine buildings were built, were built
Under Cur20n's Viceroyalty at the beginning well and still survive. Evidently, an architect
of this century, the character of the PWD, like in India required tenacity of purpose as well as
so much else, changed. Curzon confirmed the diplomacy. My selection of examples of British
practice of importing properly trained archi- architecrure is limited by my knowledge of
tects to act as Consulting Architects to the India and is mainly drawn from the capital
various Presidencies and, in 1902, James cities. The work of British architecrs in the
Ransome was appointed the first Consulting smaller cities and towns, let alone the whole
Architect to the Government of India. How- fascinating field of buildings commissioned by
ever, much that architects found exasperating the native princes, can hardly be touched upon
about the PWD remained unaltered. In 1869 in the time available to me.
an editorial in the Builtkr maintained that 'The
Department of Public Works requires great At the beginning of my period, the Public
reform. It is composed chiefly of a military Works Department continued to build in the
element; everything smacks and smells mili- colonial manner inherited from the eighteenth
tary; and the assertion that reaches us from all century: most buildings were simple, unpre-
quarters is that "The few civil engineers are tentious affairs of verandahs, arches, columns
snubbed and made to eat bumble pie to military and walls, usually of stuccoed brick. This was a
chief engineers, who really do nothing but sit at sort of vernacular Classicism which was both
office and write minutes and reports, and carry serviceable and practical and, to the Victorians,
out a system of scarlet tape unknown even in intolerably dull. J. Lockwood Kipling con-
red-tape England."" In bis 1873 lecture, T. demned an ordinary PWD building as 'a long
Roger Smith pointed out that military men low wall pierced with round-headed cavities,
were unlikely to have studied architectural entirely without architectural sense of mass,
drawing and construction 'with such undivided with no distinguishing features and no details
attention, as to make the.m great architects'. to speak of except the cornice and the impost
From personal experience, Smith recounted from which the arches spring. . . . There· arc
the difficulties an architect had in getting a hundreds of such buildings in India, where,
design properly executed, especially as it was cut up into larger or shorter lengths, they serve
done by a different department in the PWD for law courts, schools, municipal halls, dak
'who buys materials, and plant, engages labour, bungalows, barracks, post offices, and other
and overlooks and so erects the building'.' needs of our high civilization'' - which, in fact,
This system e,;,idently still prevailed in the was precisely their virtue; the military engineers
time of John Begg, the second Consulting had evolved a standardized architecture ana-
Architect to the Government of India, who in lagous to that proposed by the French Nco-
1920 told the RIBA that in India Classical theorist, Durand.
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JOURNA L OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS P ROCEEDINGS

The Post Office, Dall1ousie Square, Calcutta. By (Walter Granville, 1864-8.

Photograph of the 1870s (Gerald Cobb)

In cities, of course, the Classicism was 1864- 8, and which proudly survives in Dal-
grander and more grammatical, and nowhere housie Square. Matthew Digby Wyatt's earlier
more so than ' The City of Palaces' - Calcutta, design of 1857 for this building was not pro-
the seat of the British Raj. Here the Classical ceeded with, perhaps because it was not pure
tradition survived longest and was revived Classic. The Post Office is a noble monumental
soonest. The only mishap suffered by that noble building, with its Corinthian order between
city ,-..,as the ugly, confused re•facing in red Schinkclcsquc pylons, and is an object lesson in
brick of the Writers' Buildings in 1877-82. how to turn a corner in conjunction with a dome.
Otherwise Calcutta remained a stuccoed I do not know if the S mall Cause Court was
Classical city, reminiscent of St Pctcrsburg or designed by Granville, but it was an interesting
Nash's London, and it was enhanced by several C lassical building with strange capitals;
public buildings designed by Calcutta's most whether they reflect an attempt at an ' Indian
interesting Victorian architect, Walter L. B. Order' or arc just the work of Indian craftsmen
Granville (1819/20-1874) . I cannot say.
I wish I knew more about Granville. He But Granville, like all architects, was a
must have received a sound Classical training creature, or a victim, of fashion. His largest
before going out to India in 1858 as architect to building in Calcutta, the High Court built in
the Eastern Bengal Railway. From 1863 until 1864-9, is Gothic - a simplified and rather
1868 he acted as consulting architect to the crude version of the C loth Hall at Ypres, that
Government of India and special architect to essential paradigm for Victorian Gothicists
that of Bengal with the express purpose of who had to design a secular building. Unfortu-
design ing important buildings in Calcutta. One nately, Granville's central tower could not be
of these was the University> with its distin• completed owing 10 an alarming subsidence,
guishcd Ionic Senate House, built in 1866-72 the effects of which can still be seen, and the
and, I am very sorry to say, torn down in 1961. present tower, possibly the work of another
Also by Granville is the Post Office, built in hand, is much 100 low. Similar to the Calcutta
36o
MAY 198 I 6RITISH ARCHITECTURE IN lNOJA 1857-1947

College Square, Calcutta , with (on the left) the Um"t•~rs,'ry Senate Houst. By lflalter Granville, 1866- 72.
Photograph of the t87os (Gerald Cobb)

High Court in general configuration and artistic practical, ttexible style suitable for all types of
aim is the Central Station in Madras, designed buildings and, in the t86os, such ideas became
by George Hardinge and built in 1868- 72. generally accepted. For a mid-Victorian Goth ,
In the 1860s, the Victorian Gothic Revival Calcutta was as unacceptable as Gower Street
invaded India - that great crusade to make all or Regent Street. Speaking at th e Architectural
buildings Gothic. Gothic had, naturally, been Museum in T ufton Street in 1870, on •Modern
employed before for churches' as it had long Architecture in Western India', Sir Bank
been regarded as the Christian style. An early Frere dared predict that 'a hundred yea rs
example is Calcutta Cathedral, built in 183!r-46 hence, possibly, the English people would not
to the designs of Colonel Forbes of the Benga l look with great pride on the "City of Palaces"
Engineers. Pretty and charming though it is, because the materials employed are not such
this was not the sort of serious Gothic to as any architect would use for architecture of a
satisfy Victorians who had read Pugin or high order or intended for posterity ... The
Ruskin. The first ecclesiologica lly 'correct' whole of what the E nglish government has
church in India was the Afghan Memoria l done for the adornment of the capitals of India
Church at Colaba, Bombay, designed by may be summed up by saying that very few
Henry Conybeare and consecrated in 1858. public boildings have been erected which
Salvin, Derick and, possibly, Scott, may have would be considered in any small seaport town
been involved in the design. Among the many in the country to be above ordinary merit., 11>
other Victorian Gothic churches in India I may As Governor of Bombay from 1862 unti l
mention St Jamcs's, Calcutta, designed in 1861 1867, Sir Bartle Frere was in a position to
by Sir Gilbert Scott, and the Anglican Cathedral encourage the sort of architecture which he
in Lahore, designed by his second son, John believed ought to ornament India; the result is
Oldrid, and built in 1883- 1914 and since altered. what Roben Byron later called 'that archi-
Gothic was not just for churches, however. tectura l Sodom, Bombay'." Owing to the
Pugin, Ruskin and Scott argued that it \ /aS a 11 happy co-incidence of a sudden influx of wealth
36t
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDINGS

St James's Church , Circular Road, Calcutta. By Sir Gilbert Scott, 1861- 4.

Photograph c. 1870 ( Gerald Gobi,)

and the height of the enthusiasm for the Gothic manner. He prepared a Gothic design in
Revival, Bombay became - and remains - the which, he said , he tried to combine 'a suffi-
finest Gothic Revival city in the world with a ciency of Eastern features and traditions, to
remarkable concentration of Gothic public make it seem at home in a tropical climate> with
buildings. The prosperity was produced by the ample characteristics of the Faith and people it
American Civil War and the blockade of the represents'. " Sir Bartle Frere laid the founda-
Confederate South, which encouraged India's tion stone in 1865 but work stopped after three
cotton and trade benefited its principal port. years with only the new apsed chancel built -
The expansion of the city was proposed by the 'Cotton mania' bubble had finally burst.
Frere's predecessor as Governor, Sir George T . Roger Smith's architectural tastes were
Clerk. Newstreetswerelaidout, such asElphin- s lightly more eclectic than Trubshawe's; he
stone Circus, and new public buildings pi;o- recognized reluctantly that ' the style native to
posed on the site of the old fortifications of England - English Gothic - is not fitted to be
Bombay. A policy was pursued of importing transferred to India without large modification'
architects from Britain. T he general plan, and so recommended, partly because he had to
generous but informal and picturesque, was admit that England did not really have a
prepared by James Trubshawe, descri~d as national style at all, that architects looked to
Architect to the Ramparts Removal Com- Southern Europe for 'models which are essen-
mittee , Bombay. Trubshawe designed several tially fitted for use as guides in designing build-
new buildings, such as the severe Gothic Post ings for hot climates, and those models are un-
Office (in collaboration with W. Paris), and mistakably European'." Those models were
some in conjunction with our friend T . Roger Italian Renaissance and Italian Gothic - the
Smith (1830-1903). His most ambitious scheme latter nicely coinciding with the styles adopted
was for re-casting Bombay Cathedral , a build- in Britain by avant•garde architects in the
ing in the. despised, unpretc.n tious stuccoed 1850s underthe influence of Ruskin.
362
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHI TECTURE IN INDIA 1857-1947

(Old) General Post Office, Bombay. By James Ttubshawe and W. Paris, 1869-71.
Photograph of rhe r87os (Gerald Co/Jb)

There were other reasons for the successful which in 1863 had been pronounced impos-
adoption of Gothic in Bombay, for it was a city, sible.'" The inagnificent carved capitals and
unlike Calcutta, which enjoyed the easy avail- other details on the principal public buildings
ability of good building stone and so made of Bombay were the work of Indian craftsmen.
possible the sort of honest, 'real' architecrure Some of the most important buildings in
which Gothicists insisted on. Polychromatic Bombay are the work of Royal Engineers,
effects could be produced by using Coorla (buff) notably Wilkins and Fuller. Whether they
or blue basalt with Porebunder or Coorla really executed their own designs or whether
sandstone, or even red Basse in sandstone. The 'ghosts' were employed I cannot say, but the
other necessity in the best Gothic Revival work results are highly competent and accomplished
was good vigorous architectural sculprure and essays in secular Gothic. which faithfully
decoration. By the 1870s this was a practical reflect architccrura l developments back in
possibility, very much owing to Lockwood Britain. T h e two principal expressions of
Kipling's appointment as professor of Archi- Gothic Revival talent in Britain were two com-
tectural Sculprure at the Bombay School of petitions, that for the Government Offices in
Art in 1865. In 1873 Colonel H. St Clair Westminster, held in 1857, and that for the new
Wilkins wrote to Kipling that 'I consider you Law Courts in the Strand in 1866; architects in
were the pioneer of your art in this country; for, India no doubt knew of all these designs
eight years ago, when I first met you, artistic through plates published in the Builder or the
sculprure of natural objects was unknown in Building News. With Scott, Street, Seddon ,
India. In 1863 an architectural design of mine Burges, et al. in mind, Colone l H. St Clair
was said ... to be "out of the question» owing Wilkins ( 1828-<)6), ADC to the Queen ,
to the introduction of foliated capitals and carv- designed the Bombay Secretariat (1865-74) and
ing. In 1865, you had, I believe, performed that the Public Works Secretariat ( 186!>-72) while
363
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP ARTS PROCEEDINGS

Public \17orks Offim, Boml,ay. By Cc!. H. St Clair Wilkim, 1869- 7,.

Photograph of 1ht 1870, (Gerald Cobb)

Lt.-Colonel James Augus1usFuller(1828-1902) elements, notably Oriental domes - always an

designed th e Law Courts ( 1871-9), which com- easy motif for British architects to adopt. In
bine Early English Goth ic with features from 1866 Burges' s drawings were sent out to Sir
Venice. Bartle Frere in Bombay in the care of his pupil,
In between the Secretariat and the Law William Emerson (1843- 1924), who had I ndian
Courts is the U niversity, with buildings erected family connections. They could not, in the
by the Bombay sappers from designs sent out by event, be used, probably both owing to expense
a most distingu ished British architect, Sir and impracticability, but for Emerson the
Gi.l bert Scott . T he result, built in 1869-78, is journey was not wasted. He soon designed a
one of his happiest but least known works. The church which was built at Girgaum and this
University Library with its colossal Rajabai was shortly followed by the commissions to
Tower - Scott's version of Giotto's complete design the architectural part of the Crawford
design for the campanile in Florence - is rich in Markets in Bombay (1 865-69) and a cathedral
all the features like verandahs and open spiral in Allahabad .
staircases which Gothic Revivalists loved but Emerson 1s Gothic does not seem as accom-
which were not very suitable in wet, cold plished or as appropriate to Bombay as the work
England. South of the L ibrary is the Sir by that city's most celebrated local architect,
Cowasjee Jehangir Hall, named after one of the Frederick William Stevens (1848-1900). Stevens
several Parsee benefactors whose munificence was born in Bath and there articled to
did much to embellish Bombay. the architect with whom Baillie Scott later
Sadly, a design by another famous British trained, Charles E. Davis. In 1867 Stevens
architect remained unexecuted. This was the passed a comperjtive examination at the India
scheme prepared by William Burges for the Office and was appointed Assistant Engineer in
School of Art, in which his favourite hea,,y the PWD in Bombay under Fuller. In 1884
French Gothic was combined with I ndia.n Stevens resigned from Government service but
364
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA 1857 - 1947

---

Municipal Buildings, Bombay. By Frederick William Stevens, 1888- 91.

Photograph c. 19<>0 (Gtrald Cobb)

continued to practise in Bombay. An early a really impressive public building. It is sur-

work of his is the Sailors' Home on Apollo mounted by the type of Gothic dome which
Bunder built in 1872-6 after the first design by Scott had always wanted to build and which he
Macvicax Anderson had been abandoned. proposed in his unsuccessful design for the
Stevens carried on building in robust, mid- Reichstag in Berlin. What is strange, however,
Victorian Gothic long after it had ceased to be is that unlike Scott's great building at St.
fashionable back in Britain . His masterpiece is Pancr-dS Station , Stevens' pile in Bombay is not
the most famous Victorian building in India an hotel but merely railway offices.
and was the largest built there in modern T he Victoria Terminus station was built in
times: the Victoria Terminus of the Great 1878- 87. In 1894-6 followed the Church Gate
Indian Peninsular Railway. In this well massed station building for the Bombay, Baroda and
symmetrical pile, enriched with excellent sculp- Central I ndian Railway, in which Stevens gave
ture, Stevens showed how the Gothic of Scon his Gothic a much more pronounced Oriental
and Burges could be adapted to India and make character. The same is true of the Municipal
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 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP ARTS PROCBEDINGS

Buildings, opposite Victoria Terminus, which As we have seen in the later buildings of F.
Stevens was invited to design by Bombay Cor- W. Stevens, by the 1880s architects were
poration in 1888. Strangely, to execute this inclined not only to adopt practical native
Stevens returned to England and opened an features, such as verandahs, but also elements
office in Bath to prepare the drawings, and then of Indian styles of architecture. The result was
returned to India to supervise its erection. The to be buildings in the so-called lndo-Saracenic
building, with its exotic dome and gable with a style: neither really Indian, nor altogether
figure representing Urbs prima in lrniis, was European, but a fascinating, if sometimes
completed in 1893. When Stevens died in absurd, eclectic mixture of the two. The pro-
Bombay in 1900, his obituarist in the Times of blem was that there was no one unchallenged,
India said of his buildings that 'He carried out indigenous architectural tradition in India and,
in them with conspicuous success that blending of course, no modem national style at all in
of Venetian Gothic with Indian Saracenic by Britain. In the late nineteenth century, eclecti-
which he created a style of architecture so cism was the answer in both the East and the
excellently adapted to the climate and environ- West.
ment of Bombay' .1• The great historian, James Fergusson, lec-
Bombay has, nevertheless, a decided British tured to the Society of Arts in 1866 on 'The
Victorian character. The other towns where Study of Indian Architecture' and, while he felt
purely British types of architecture held sway obliged to say that 'I must consider copying the
were the hill stations: places with no native or Indian styles a crime, I feel convinced that
Moghul building traditions of their own. there are principles underlying them which
Simla, 8,000 feet up in the Himalayas, became cannot be too deeply studied, and that there
the official summer capital of India in 1864. are many suggestions to be derived from the
Lutyens was there in 1912, and found that 'It is practice of the Indian architect which cannot
inconceivable, and consequently very English! fail, if properly used, to be useful to our own.
- to have a capital as Simla is entirely of tin The great merit, however, of the study I con-
roofs, and then the tin roofs monl<eying better ceive to be the widening of our base of obscrva•
materials and reducing the whole thing to tion, and so enabling students to realize the
absurdity. The hills and depths below are true definition of the art, for till that is grasped
heroic, the building and conception of the there seems linle hope of any improvement in
place by the Public Works Department is our archi tecture ...., ..
beyond the beyond, and if one was told the Fergusson led the way in the study of ancient
monkeys had built it all one could only say Indian architecture which greatly influenced
"What wonderful monkeys - they must be shot modem architects. The sympathetic examina-
in case they do it again .. .." '1 1 tion of India's past was further encouraged by
The church at the end of the Mall is, natur- the growing concern for the repair and preser-
ally, Gothic; many of the other public build- vation of ancient monuments - the subject of
ings, such as the Library and Town Hall, are Dr. Allchin's Birdwood Lecture of two years
Tudor and half-timbered. The principal new ago. Several British architects found themselves
building erected in Simla in Victoria's reign involved with the repair of old Indian buildings.
was the new Viceregal Lodge, built in 1884-8 One of these was Madras's best Victorian
by Lord DuJferin to replace an older residence architect, Robert Fellowes Chisholm (1840-
with the unlikely name of Peterhof. DuJferin's 1915). Chisholm practised briefly in Calcuna
architect was Henry Irwin (1841-1922), who before going to Madras in about 1865. He was
produced a building of grey stone in an eclectic responsible for the new College and for com-
Elizabethan style, reminiscent of an hotel in a pleting the new Palace at Baroda, which had
British seaside resort, and with Jacobean been begun by Major Mant (1848-81), an im-
interiors which must have reminded the Viceroy portant pioneer in the adoption of native styles
of his Ulster seat, Clandeboye. Early this cen- of architecture.
rury the Lodge was sympathetically extended To judge by his buildings, such as the Post &
by the addition of a Council Chamber. Vice- Telegraph Office in Madras, Chisholm was
roy's Lodge seems exotic even in Simla, a town essentially a Gothicist (he later declared hJs
which is of strange, picturesque charm and opposition to the Renaissance sty le being used
which has been given glamour by Plain Taks in India) but he evidently did not agree with
from 1he Hills, but its buildings scarcely pro- Wilkins's statement, made in 1883, that 'in the
vide an intelligent or interesting answer to the public buildings of India it would be impossible
problems faced by British architects down in to adapt the Hindoo $aracenic style of archi-
the heat of the plains. tecture, owing to the immense cost of carving
366
 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE I N !NOIA 1857-1947

1t

Chepa11k Palace (Board of Revem,e Offices), Madras. By Robert Fe/l<,wes Chisholm, 1870s.
PIUJtograpl, of 1/,e 1870s (Gerald Cobb)

1he ornamental work of !ha1 style in s1one'." Chepauk Palace, and !he Government Presi•
T hat same year Chisholm told !he R1 BA that dcncy College. On several buildings Chisholm
I am not prepared ro say, on economic or even employed the studen1s of the Madras School of
artistic grounds, that the past indigenous styles of Art, of which he was for a time Head, to execute
art are more suited to India than foreign importa- the industrial art work.
tions would be, or that in the hands of a clever This is probably the best poin1 to mention
designer, with a powerful grasp of the subject, every the largest lndo-Saracenic public building in
phase of Gothic and renaissance might not be made Madras, !he new Law Courts built in 1888-92,
as suitable to the country as any eastern type; but after Chisholm had left 1he city for Baroda, to
the matter does not end here, for this is merely the the designs of J. W. Brassington and Henry
paper part of the business. When the design is Irwin, assisted by J. H . Stephen. The wildly
completed we have yet to deal with the work itself
and with the workmen, the men who will actuaU}• Romantic skyline of this great red brick pile -
leave the impress of their hands on the materials, with the tallest tower serving as a lighthouse -
and these men have an art-language of their own, a belies the logica l efficiency of 1he building's
language which you can recognize, but cannot planning and construction. The architects
thoroughly understand. For this reason an architect cannot have been unaware of the astonishing
pracrising in India should unhesitatingly elect co Golhic designs submitted in !he London Law
practise in the native styles of art - indeed, the Cou rls competition of 1866, for the M adras
natural art-expression of these men is the ot1ly an to building manifests that Victorian concern with
be obtained in the country. 13 separate circulation systems combined with
Chisholm's own essays in native s1yle may be many open verandahs to keep the interior cool.
seen along the Marina in Madras, where he The massing and details of the building arc
designed a number of public buildings, includ- essentially Gornie Revival, but the arches are
ing !he Senate House of the University ( 1874- given a Saraccnic flavour by cusping. T he
9), !he Board of Revenue Offices, formerly design is an intelligent and convincing amalga-
367
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCU!TY OF ARTS PROCBBOINGS

.
I i.I I

IB.iY~ ~ ·-- I

Hcusefor the Ho11. Magistrate o/Jthangirabad, Bulandshahr, near Delhi. By ,Jative builders with
F. S. Growse, c. 1878-84. Photograph published i11 The Journal of Indian Art, 1886.
(/>1dia Office Library)

mation of styles and the skyline, in particular, The highly centralized departmental system~ which
satisfied the predilections of both Indians and prescribes the form of all buildings in one uniform
the Victorian British; but, of course, it is essen- pattern, is fatal to right movement in art, whi1c
tially a European building, as critics of the measures which develope{sic)local intelligence, and
which, leaving a district under the guidance of ics
PWD were well aware.• own natural leaders to form its own projects and
To recum 10 Chisholm, ii is interesting to employ its own agency, relieve it from the necessity
find that his view of the Indian craftsman of submiuing designs for departmental sanction,
approached that of Lockwood Kipling, who may give free play to the skiJI and fancy of the
was most responsible for applying the arts and native craftsmen in his own natural line. It is on the
crafts ideals of William Morris within India. architecture of to-day that the preservation of
Kipling agreed with Morris and Ruskin that Indian art in any healthy semblance of healthy life
architecture was not just a mauer of paper now hinges. 1 •
designs but that it depended upon the skill and The one example of this to which Kipling,
self-expression of individual craftsmen and, in and Havell after him, could point was at
India, Kipling believed that the mistri, the Bulandshahr, where, between 1878 and 1884,
traditional Indian master builder, was a poten- F. S. Growse had caused a number of buildings
tially creative force who was largely unexploited to be e rected in the traditional manner and
by the Government. In his 1886 essay on built by local craftsmen. Growse had gone out
'Indian Architecture of To-day', Kipling wrote 10 I ndia in I 864 as ' an enthusiastic votary of
that the Gothic rcvivaP but he had come to realize
that the real Gothic principle necessitated the
• A latu bu.llding by Irwin in M.1dra11, and a muc.h more encouragement of native talent to develop in
sophi,ticat«I 1md well-finished n,uy in l ndo-Saraoenic, i.& its own way and so to resist 'the tide of utili-
the Vi<;eoria Memorial Ha11 of lhe Victoria ln.stitute, opc-ncd
in 1909, tarian barbarism' of the PWD. But the PWD
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA 1857-1947
fought back against such dangerous unortho- Gateway of India: a triumphal arch rendered in
doxy, first by delaying tactics and finally by lndo-Saracenic, built to commemorate the
summarily posting Growse elsewhere.•• landing of King George V and Queen Mary in
For Havell, Growse was a martyr to the 1911 on their way to the momentous Delhi
cause - just as he felt himself to be - but by the Durbar.
early twentieth century there were architects Another architect who adopted this Oriental-
prepared to regard native craftsmen and Indian izing approach was Vivian J. Esch (1876-
building traditions much more sympathetically 1950), most of whose work was undertaken not .
- even if they never surrendered overall archi- in British India but for the Nizam of Hydera-
tectural control. One of the leading advocates bad. His public buildings in the city of Hydera-
of a true lndo-Saracenic public architecture bad included the Osmania General Hospital,
was Colonel Sir Swinton Jacob (1841-1917). the High Court, the City High School and the
The son of a Colonel in the Bombay artillery, Town Hall. In 1942 Esch confirmed the
Jacob was one of the last batch of youths to opinion of Kipling and Havell by claiming that
enter the East India Company's Military Col- 'We can teach the master-craftsman of India
lege at Addiscombe and, as an artillery officer, very little; on the contrary we can learn much
he was sent out to India. In 1862 he qualified from him. It is true that in recent years there
as a surveyor and civil engineer and, for the have been many Western iMovations in
next half-eentury, worked for the PWD and modem construction, sanitation and electrical
was Engineer to Jaipur State. Greatly interest- installation, but in these various branches of
ing himself in Indian architecture, Swinton the trade Indian workmen have readily
Jacob designed a remarkable number of lndo- mastered their work. As long ago as 1904 I was
Saracenic public buildings. Many of them are largely building in reinforced concrete and I
in Lucknow, but he also built colleges, hospi- have never found better work anywhere. Let
tals and other buildings in the native states - in us keep India Indian, and let her architecture
Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bhopal. Jacob made a flourish as it did years ago, and always retain
point of training Indian draughtsmen and its unchallenged majesty.'" The trouble is that
architects as part of his work in encouraging Esch's buildings do not really look Indian ;
native Indian architecture. In 1913, F. O. rather they look like what they are - early
Oertel, a PWD man who restored the Taj twentieth-century British buildings adapted to
Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri for Cur20n, oon- the Indian climate by the provision of veran-
sidered that Chisholm and Swinton Jacob 'are dahs and openings and with Oriental detail
the two men who have done most for indigen- applied.
ous Indian architecture, and they have given an · As a result of the somewhat ludicrous schizo-
impulse to its revival which will never die. phrenia of some Indo-Saracenic buildings,
They have guided and . tr~i~ed, with their some British architects in India reacted in
refined taste, a number of Indian draughtsmen, favour of more purely European styles and in
who are now successfully competing in all most Indian cities public and commercial
public building competitions. ' 11 buildings were built which closely resemble in
Oertel believed that 'salvation for India lies style the various Classical maMers then being
in the ·adoption of some sort of Oriental archi- employed in Edwardian England. This is par-
tecture which has grown up in the country, and ticularly true of Calcutta, which city can boast
is most suited to its climatic and other condi- two buildings by two of England's more
tions. It is curious to note that most English interesting twentieth-century architects. The
architects working in India, sooner or later new Howrah station was rebuilt in 1906 in an
arrive at the same point of view, and either eclectic style in red brick to the designs• of
adopt indigenous architecture, or so modify the Halsey Ricardo, the Arts and <'.rafts architect,
Western styles as to give them a strong Oriental while in 1908 H. S. Goodhart-Rendel sent out
flavour.' A British architect whose work was a fa1>1de design for Gillander House in Oive
mostly Oriental in character was George Wittel Street while he was still reading music at
(1880-1926), Consulting Architect to the Trinity College, Cambridge.
Government of Bombay. He was the designer Calcutta returned to its Classical architec-
of the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay, tural traditions very much with the encourage-
with its prominent concrete dome, the founda- ment of Lord Cur20n, Viceroy from 1898 until
tion of which was laid by the future King 1905, who was very conscious of Britain•s
George V in 1905. In 1914 work began on Imperial history and who devoted the last years
Wittet's most prominent work, which is also of his life to writing a history of Calcutta and
one of the principal landmarks of Bombay, the its fine Government House. Curzon cared
369
JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDINGS

New General Post Office, Bombay. By John Begg, 190J--09·

Photograph c. 1910 ill George ll"irter's a/br,m (RIBA)

deeply for traditional India and was responsible Curzon was instrumental in the design and
for the legislation for the protection of old erection of one notable public building, the
buildings and sites which has not been super- Victoria Memorial in Calcutta. The foundation
seded: the Ancient Monuments Act of 1904. stone of this colossal marble-clad museum of
He did not, however, on the whole care for the British government in India was laid in t9()6
Indo-Saracenic style and by encouraging the and it was finally completed in 1921. Curzon
appointment of properly trained British archi- promoted the project in 1901 and had no doubt
tects as consulting architects in India (and, about the style of the building. 'In Calcutta - a
indeed, by interfering with their designs), he was city of European origin and construction -
indirectly responsible for a more monumental where all the main buildings had been erected
and Classical look to India's public buildings. in a quasi-classical or Palladian style, and
Opposed, as he later was, to the transfer of the which possessed no indigenous architectural
capital from Calcutta, Curzon endorsed the t;pe of its own - it was impossible to erect a
choice of the Renaissance style for New Delhi. building in any native style. A Moghul build-
370
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITBCTUR£ IN INDIA I 8 57• I 941
ing ... would have been quite ridiculous in the fatigue of vertical movement is a thing to be
commercial and official capital of India, and avoided; so that the natural plane for Indian
quite unsuited for the Memorial of a British building would seem to be the horizontal',"
Sovereign. A Hindu fabric would have been Begg's finest work was probably the Lady
profoundly ill-adapted for the purposes of an Hardinge Medical College and Hospital for
exhibition. It was self-evident that a structure Women (1915-16), where a spare, severe
in some variety of the classical or Renaissance horizontality, absence or ornament and use of
style was essential, and that a European archi- the Moghul projecting stone cornice, the chujja,
tect must be employed.'" may reflect the influence of Lutyens.
The choice fell on Sir William Emerson, then By 1916 Begg had grown suspicious of
President of the RIBA and, as we have seen, an excessive individuality, for he wrote about the
architect with experience of India. I can only PWD that 'I am convinced that we should be a
consider the choice unfortunate. Emerson was greater power for progress in architecture, both
a Gothic man by training and a licentious as individuals and as a body, if we endeavoured
eclectic in his later work; as a result the Victoria more successfully to realise our solidarity'."
Memorial, although undeniably impressive, is Perhaps a synthesis between East and West
a loose and confused combination of Classical was approaching, except that Begg had little
features - with just a dash of the Saracenic - time for traditional Indian crafts. In 1912 he
with no hint of the true Grand Manner or of defended the PWD against Havell's attacks in
the grammatical discipline that would soon the pages of The Timu by arguing that 'if it be
appear in New Delhi. Havell, with some true that native Indian architectural art has
justice, dismissed it as 'a building which died under our rule, I think it very doubtful
appears to be an archaeological essay on whether we should be blamed for it. Only art
Kedleston Hall and the Radcliffe Library at with little vitality could be killed by Govern-
Oxford .. .'." But it is magnificently built and ment's letting it alone'." But Begg was not a
finished, chiefly owing to the supervision of rigid aesthetic imperialist. In 1920 he told the
Vincent Esch, who was responsible for some of RIBA 'Let the architect take to India all of his
the smaller details. real principles, all of his technical skill both in
The work of the first two Consulting Archi- design and execution, all the essence of his
tects to the Government of India is rather training, but nothing more. There let him set
more satisfactory. Buildings by James Ran- himself to a new pupilage, and study India's
some (1865-1944), who was appointed in 1902, indigenous forms and expressions in relation to
were largely Oassical. His successor, John the general conditions he there finds. Let him
Begg (1866-1937), who held the post from 1908 absorb these forms and expressions into his
until 1921, was the most distinguished archi- consciousness, until, without abandoning one
tect yet to be employed by Government in essential of his earlier training, he can, as it
India. A Scot, Begg had been a pupil of Hippo- were, not only speak, but also think architec-
lyte Blanc, had won several prizes and had turally in an indigenous manner.' Furthermore,
worked for Waterhouse and Edis before going Begg now recognized, 'there are the craftsmen
out to South Africa. In 1901 he became ready and waiting for you, able to grasp your
Wittet's predecessor as Consulting Architect intentions at a glance, and to render your
to the Government of Bombay. In Bombay he details, not merely intelligently, but with
designed the huge new General Post Office something of the inspiration that bore upon
with its dome constructed of brick, for which you in conceiving the work'. u
he employed an Indo-Saracenic style, and the As a prelude to the greatest architectural
technical block of the School of Art, which is a opportunity in the whole history of British
good essay in the Edwardian Baroque. In India, it may be well to here mention one last
Calcutta, Begg's worlr: was monumental and Edwardian Consulting Architect, E. Montagu
Classical. A good example is the Secretariat in Thomas (18? ?-1916), who worked for the
Council House street, initially designed by Government of Madras and who was the
Ransome in stone but redesigned by Begg for brother of the architect of Belfast City Hall. In
brick and stucco. Elsewhere, as in the Agra 1912 Thomas was deputed to direct the tem-
Post Office (1913), a severe, blocky Classic porary work at Delhi and he designed the
manner was combined with practical Indian temporary government buildings north of the
features and given a certain horizontality old city in a characteristic Mannered Classical
which seems appropriate in India, a country style with Oriental overtones.
where, as A. G . Shoosmith later argued, on the The reason for these buildings was, of
whole ' space is almost boundless, and the course, the momentous declaration made by
371
JOURNAL Of T H£ ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDINGS

Viuroy•s HoHse, New Delhi. By Sir Edwin Lutyens, 1912- 29.

Photograph of south front by Prnelope Chetwode, c. 1911

George V at the Delhi Durbar the year before, Byron and Christopher Hussey. As far as I am
that the capital would be transferred from concerned, New Delhi is one of the great.e st
Calcutta to Delhi. In 1912 the British Govern- things the British have ever done and it seems
ment chose an architect for the proposed new little short of a miracle that an architect of
city, not from the PWD but fro m back home: towering genius was able 10 realize almost all of
Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), who was joined his conception despite the opposition of Anglo-
by Herbert Baker (1862-1946) later that year. India and the congenital meanness and phili-
After many delays, caused principally by the stinism of British government and bureaucracy.
Great Wa.r , New Delhi was inaugurated in That said, I think it is worth briefly con•
1931. Lutyens designed the principal building sidering New Delhi in the context of the theme
in the city - on which its spacious geometrical of this lecture, for there was much opposition to
plan centred - Viceroy's House, and also the Luryens's and the Government's choice of an
All India War Memorial Arch and a number of essentially Western, Classical manner. The
other buildings including palaces for some of PWD, obviously piqued at not being asked 10
the native princes. T o Baker fell the Secretariat undertake the work, advocated the use of lndo-
buildings , either side of the King's Way on the Saracenic and this was an attitude shared by
edge of Raisina H ill, and the circular Legisla- the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, who was forever
tive Assembly building. advocating the use of the pointed arch. For a
I do not want to dwell long on New Delhi: it brief period, the aged Sir Swinton Jacob was
has received considerable attention and I have associated with the project to give advice on
no doubt it will receive much more, and the Indian architecture and Lutyens was sent off 10
achievement of Luryens in terms of the Agra and Fatehpur-Sikri. Furthermore, there
development of the European Classical, or was a strong lobby in Britain which agreed with
humanist tradition has been brilliantly analysed H avel! about the importance of encouraging
by two superb architectural writers, Robert Indian traditions and crafts. Correspondence
372
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA 1857-1947

flared up in The Times and, in 1913, a petition incidentally one of arclutectural motives, It is a
was sent to the Secretary of State for India fusion also of tastes; comforts, and conceptions of
asking that New Delhi be designed in an beaury, in different climates. The Mogul Emperors,.
Indian style, which was signed by several Arts be.hind their gorgeous fa?des, Lived in rooms like
housemaids 1 closets - though set with pearls and
and Crafts architects who were Lutyens's
rubies. Lutyens bas combined the gorgeous fa~e,
colleagues. coloured and dramatic-, of Asia, with the solid habit,
Unfortunately, Lutycns at first had little cubic and in1cllcc1ual, of Buropean building. Taking
time for Indian architectllle, although later he the best of Bast and West, bests which arc comple-
came to admire Fatehpur Sikri and, in partic- mentary, he has made of them a double magnifi-
ular, the palace at Dattia, and he may well have cence.a•
been more impressed by Indian architecture New Delhi is superbly built, in its cream~and
than he ever admitted, owing to the fervent rich red sandstone; the quality . of work
and polarized nature of the arguments. Most secured from the Sikh contractors was very
of what he saw offended his sense of order, high - but there was no place for self-expres-
now that he had discovered the possibilities for sion by the Indian craftsmen. Here is the irony,
development and abstraction in the Classical for Lutyens had begun his career in Surrey in
tradition. He wrote that the very heart of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Personally I do not believe there is any real Indian Baker, however, with his weakness for heraldry
architecture or any great tradition. There arc jU$t and symbolic sculpture and with his senti-
spurts by various mush.room dynasties with about mental attitude to architectUral style, gave
as much intellect as there is in any other art much more scope for the craftsman. But
nouveau ... There are no doubt great thinkers and Baker's buildings, with the Oriental features so
&ood men; but what proof can I find that their
thoughts arc not as unfinished and as slovenly as the cruelly compared by Byron with bowler hats
work of 1ha1 other half of India 1ha1 offends and and lines of laundry, are so manifestly inferior
distresses the eye at every turn, everywhere, wher- to those by Lutyens, although they have their
ever I have been in the Native States or British quaJjties and achieve dignity though the general
territory ? There is no trace of any Wren. Is there conception of New Delhi. In Baker's work,
an Isaac Newton? I doubt it. Without the one you there is no real fusion between East and West,
cannot have the other. u but what he did came closer to the Indo-
The vision of New Delhi was Imperial, and Saracenic ideal of Anglo-India. And the
this inspired Lutyens - and Baker, who wrote eventual conflict berween the rwo men,
to him from South Africa in 1912 that between Lutyens with his pure, sublime vision
It is really a great event in the history of the world of what architecture can be, and Baker, who
and of arclutecture - that rulcn should have the compromised, came to a head in the symbolic
s1ren111h and sense to do the ri&ht thing. It would but f uriousargument about the gradient between
only be possible now under a despotism - ~ome day the Secretariats on the great Imperial vista to
perhapS democracies will follow ... I wonder what Viceroy's House, when, as Lutyens character-
you will do - whether you will drop the language istically remarked, he met his 'Baker loo'.
and classical tradition and just go for surfaces - sun
and shadow. h must not be Indian, nor English, nor Perhaps Havell should have the last word. An
Roman, but it must be Imperial. In 2,000 years old man, he wrote to the Spectator in 1931 in
there must be an Imperial Lutyens tradition in protest at Byron's issue of the Architoctural
Indian architecture ... Hurrah for despotisml 30 Review, and asserted that
But it would be wrong 10 think of New Delhi The problem of New Delhi was not merely ,o add a
as a purely European city, like Calcutta. The new style - the Lutyens style - necCMarily an arti-
brilliance of Viceroy's House lies in part in ficial one, to the many which India bas evolved by
Lutyens' integration of Moghul elements, such herself, but to bring about a real co-operatioo
as the chujja and the little chattris on the between the Ew-opean architect and the Indian
masta builder, and thus to give a new lease of life
parapet, as well as the Buddhist railing motif
w rhe living uaditions of Indian art which have
from Sanchi wrapped around the dome, with a been withering under the blight of Buropean
Classicism so monumental and sculptural and departmentalism. If that real co-opcralion had been
hori:r.ontal that it seems right in the beat of achieved, rhe new Delhi might have given birth to
India. As Robert Byron wrote, an lndo-British School of Archi1cc1ure of intense
Like all humanists, Sir Edwin Lutyens had drunk vitality and natural strength. . . . In this respect
of the Eu1opcan past, and now he drank of the New Delhi has been a lamentable failure .... New
Indian. He borrowed themes and inventions f-rom Delhi mi&bt have been something better than an
both.... In so doing he has accomplished a fusion excellent one-man show, designed 10 gratify the
between Ba1t and West, and created a novel work of Indian love of splendour and 10 express the ideal of
art. But the fusion between East and West is only British rule in India . .. lo Mr. Byron's judgement,
373
 JOURliAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDI NGS

Buildings;,, Connaught Place, New Delhi. By R<Jbert Tor Russell, 1920s.

Photograph by Pe,~lope Chetwode, c. 1931

Sir Herben Baker's influence in the creation of the for the New Delhi job, H. V. Lanchester,
imperial capital was almost negligible, and his work formerly of Lanchester & Rickards, who
comes in for severe criticism. But by holding him- created a vast domed building of essentially
self less aloof from the realities of art in India he
Classical configuration but with Hindu, rather
may have come nearer than his coJleague to the
right solution of a most vital architectural problem:u than Indo-Saracenic, detail applied. The result
is impressive, extraordinary, but quite lacking
But was Havell's Arts & Crafts idealism in that intellectual control and sophistication
really a practical proposition when designing which Lutyens demonstrated in Delhi.
a huge new city ? Would public buildings in the The Umaid Bhavan at Jodhpur also contains
Indo-Saracenic manner have been so successful some flashy 1930s interiors, but the 'An- Deco'
and so acceptable? What might have happened favo ured by several Maharajahs had - perhaps
in New Delhi can be seen in Jodhpur, where, in fortunately - no place in the architectural
1929, a colossal new palace was begun which is history of British India, the last decades of
even bigger than Viceroy's House. lt was which were dominated by the achievement of
designed by one of the disappointed aspirants Lutyens. Pac~ Haven, in 1931 Robert Byron
374
MAY 19 8t BRITISH ARCHITECTURE J N INDIA 1 857 - 1947

Sr ThomaJ't Churth, Netu Delhi. By l\?'alrer George ► c. 19Jo.

Phorograph ~v Penelope Chetwode ► c. 1931

thought it ·probable that New Uclhi is already Architect by H. A. N. Medd ( 1892-1977), who
nurturing a specifica lly Indo-British school of had gone out to India as Baker's representative
architecture'. Buildings in the New Delhi style in 1919. Medd won the competitions for the
can be found in Madras and in Calcutta - two churches - now cathedrals - in New Delhi,
where John Greaves, who had been Lutyens's the Anglican Church of th< Redemption
first resident representative in India, in 1915- ( 1928- 31), a cool sophisticated design which
20, designed the Legislative Assembly building pays homage to Palladio and to Lutyens, and
in a very derivative style. But it was above all in the Roman Catholic Cathedral (1930-34).
Delhi that a school flourished among younger Medd later designed the High Court in
architects who revered Lutyens and who Nagpur; when be sent Lutyens photographs of
maintained one of the last healthy flowerings of this under construction , the great man wrote
the Classical tradition anywhere. back that he was horrified to see that Viceroy's
Robert Tor Russell (1888- 1972), who before House was being demolished. Medd's last
the Great War bad been an assistant to John work was a distinguished addition to Calcutta,
Begg, became Chief Architect 10 the Govern- the new Mint, which was not finished until
ment of India - a new post - in 1919. Russell after Independence in 1947, in which year its
was responsible for many of tht more ordinary architect left I ndia. Although all his work was
buildings which were required in New Delhi, Classica l in inspiration, Medd, like others of
such as law courts, police stations, Connaught his generation, had a deep interest in the an
Circus - the circular colonnade of shops and architecture of India but he did not
between Old and New Delhi - and the house consider it appropriate for modern buildings.
for the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, now Arthur Gordon Sboosmith (1888- 1974)
the Nehru Museum. T his last, built in a very went out to India in 1920 as Lutyens' repre-
Lutyens manner, was erected in 1930 on the sentative to supervise the work on Viceroy's
south axis from the dome of Viceroy's House House. Only two buildings were ever built
(The parents of our Chairman, Penelope from his designs , both in India. One of them, I
Cbetwode, were the firs t occupants with her.) have no hesitation in saying, is one of the great
In 1939 Russell was succeeded as Chief huildings of the twentieth century. This is St.
375
JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP ARTS PROCEEDINGS

Martin's Church, or the Garrison Church, to One reason, I think for my being invited 10
the west of New Delhi, built in 1928-30 with 3½ address you this evening was the desire to draw
million red bricks. Th.is building is not only a attention to a class of buildings in India which
brilliant synthesis of East and West in the may be threatened with destruction. Some fine
Lutyens Elemental manner; it also sums up buildings have, indeed, gone; others may go. It
so many tendencies in early twentieth-century is difficult to know what to say about this,
modem architecture: the severity of the indus- especially when we realize what immense pro-
trial aesthetic, the Sublime, the desire for the blems a country like India faces with the pre-
exotic monumentality of the monuments of servation of so many much more ancient monu-
the ancient world. It is superbly modelled with ments, Moghul, Hindu and Buddhist. Can we
Lutyens' system of alternate set-backs and of really plead for the preservation of Victorian
battered walls,yet it is clearly a church although buildings in India when Bombay is a more
there are no literal Gothic details. The military complete Victorian city, is much less stupidly
liked it as they thought that, with its tiny ruined, than, say, Manchester or Bradford;
windows, it oould easily be defended. when central Calcutta has lost Jess stuccoed
Finally, Walter Sykes George (1881-1962), Regency architecture than central London;
who went out in 1915 as Baker's representative when, in the last few months, we could actually
and who began to practise independently in allow a foreign diplomatic legation to pull down
1923. He designed a number of houses in a house by the Adam brothers in Portland
Delhi, St. Stephen's College and St. Thomas's Place? It may seem arrogant aod pattonizing
Church - the latter of a character similar to ifwe do.
Shoosmith's. He also designed the Council We British, of course, are so frightfully good
Chamber and government offices at Simla, at telling other people what to do. In the 188os,
which did much to redeem the PWD's work in William Morris, John Ruskin and others
the summer capital. It is appropriate to end greatly annoyed the Italians by telling them to
with Walter George as he stayed on in India stop destructive proposals for the restoration of
after 1947, ran the Delhi School of Architec- St. Mark's in Venice. A century later, however,
ture, founded the Indian Institute of Town can we doubt that they were right? With regard
Planning, and twice became president of the to British buildings in India, all I would ask is
Indian Institute of Architects. that they be taken seriously, especially as the
With Independence, however, neither potential threat to them comes not so much
Havell's hopes for Indian traditions, nor from physical deterioration as from proposals
Luryens's vision of a future architecture were for modernization and redevelopment. I would
fulfilled. In 1938, Shoosmith had found that hope that India will ignore certain destructive
'side by side with a revival of mediaeval Per- British attitudes - the old-fashioned early
sian in one State we see modern German twentieth-century prejudice against all thlngs
designs for palaces in others. In the large cities Vlctorian, or the old-fashioned modem preju-
arc a few houses and commercial buildings dice against Lutyens and Classicism. I would
reminiscent of the latest creations of Paris or hope that, instead, British buildings be
Czecho-Slovakia, though whether the impulse regarded historically and judged objectively.
towards their design was anything more than a Furthermore, I would argue that if many of
/iesire to be in the fashion is to be doubted.' the buildings I have illustrated this evening
Changes in European architectural fashions, he were to be unthinkingly destroyed, it would be
lamented, had 'undermined New Delhi as a India's loss as well as ours. The great civilization
future influence. Bereft now of the support of of India has absorbed so many foreign influ-
imported architectural thought for the classical ences and yet remained unchanged; it has also
spirit which informed it, and stigmatized, how- always taught its temporary conquerors a great
ever unreasonably, as expensive, it is in danger deal - as we can see in the legacy of Anglo-
of appearing as a splendid culmination to the Indian architecture. Surely, with the passage of
old epoch instead of inaugurating a new.••• It is time, these buildings will seem no more exotic
pcculiar irony that the imported Western style than those of the Moghuls and, perhaps, even
of modem architecture which succeeded it has to-day, they seem as much a part of India as
bcoome more widespread and dominant, by the they are of Britain ?
free choice of Indians, than any architecture
imposed by British colonial rule, and, further- POSTSCRIPT
more, it has done more to suppress and to Since the lecture was delivered, Mary
neglect the traditional building crafts of India Lutyens has shown me a long letter from her
than ever did the old Public Works Department. father to Victor Lytton, QQvernor of Bengal,
376
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA 18s7-1947

dated 3rd September 1925, from which an called Italian, nor is it che le$$ Indian by reason of
extract is given below. Th.is letter concerns this Italian craftsmanship.
Lutyens's project, on which be was ve.ry keen, Art, great An, in its mos• comprehensive form, is
to found a school of art in Delhi and his very univcnal. Only do the exigencies of any given
nation, climate, habit and condhions, modify or
intelligent observations are of considerable mould that An, which is nevertheless of single
interest, both because of the light they shed on origin, and directed to a single purpose - which is
the long-running debate between the advocates che beautiful.
of Eastern and Western methods in India and So much for local style!
also because they show that Lutyens was not so There is no 9ilference in the geometric funda-
opposed to the views of men like E. B. Havell mentaJs, save that of latitude and longitude between
as is often supposed. Surrey Copses and Indian Jungles. They both obey
the s3mc immutable law ....
My dear Vic, Bver yrs
... You must have both Schools and Masters - Ned Lutycns
shadowy successors to the master CTaftsmen and
their apprentices of old. There are masters that With regard 10 the question of prefabricated
school and scol<t, wh-:, are necessarily limited and iron construction and the use of corrugated
rely on reflected experience technically to initiate iron (see Discussion, infra, p. 378), the Revd.
the uninitiated. I know and have suffered from Anthony Symondson points our ro me that the
them. Cambridge Camden Society were interested in
Then• a school led by a master - hereinafter iron churches to be exported abroad for mis-
called The Master, who is learning along the lines
of his own method, and unless his method and his sionary work and, in the 1856 edition of
vision are wide and comprehensive, be is neither Jnstrumenia Ecdtsiasrica, designs were pub-
pupil nor master, nor can there be a school. But the lished for an 'Iron Church' designed by William
master breeds disciples, and together tbey create Slater. The technical description of this men~
style. tions that the walls between the i.ron frame were
The stage between the school mas.te.r and The to be filled with 'corrugated plates'. Dr. John
Master is the most elusive factor in all education. Martin Robertson observes that in the late
When docs the pupil, having absorbed all the eighteenth century roofs in Berlin and St.
habit-benumbed knowledge the teacher bas to give, Petersburg - both cities with no good building
disoover in himself the everlasting laws of creation,
compelling him to become a leader in the expres- materials - were made of iron sheets often
sion of new thoughts and inspirations? placed over iron trusses. In 1800 John Wyatt
This is the problem I tried to so1ve for India, and I II noted that in St. Petersburg roofs were
I took as a precedent the last really successful covered 'with plate iron in the manner of
School of Art - Napoleon's Medici School at Rome. copper'.
The usu.al method now is for a pupil to emerge
and, by cxposilion or patronage, to obtain work, and Lastly, with regard to the protection of
through this work he gains experience. Through British buildings in India, it is interesting to
this experience be cams support, and through this find that, in a letter published in The Times on
support, a wider experience, and through this 13th October 1882, George Birdwood himself
experience he achieves or fails ? complained of additions proposed by the Public
Even in the west, this is precarious, and the Works Department to Muir College, Allahabad,
many failures tend to become teachers, and so the 'one of the finest modem public buildings in
vicious circle spins on. India' built in 1872-8, without consulting its
No one would ever dream on this side of the architect, William Emerson. Birdwood con-
world to hand over to elementary masters and their
pupils the decoration of public buildings. cluded: 'The Government of India has of late
It is not my fault there are so few art masters in years recognized the duty of conserving the
India, and indeed it is the very thing I wish to architectural remains of the bygone religions
rectify. and ruling dynasties of India; and surely their
. . . You sec bow, on 1he lines of the Medici reverent care should be extended also to the
School, the students are their own masters. They protection of beautiful modern buildings in
have to think and act for themselves, to perform set India from wanton deformation.'
tasks such as the decoration of paru of buildings or
spaces built for tbia purpose. Prizes will be awatded,
and all art Schools would be organized with this NOTBS
Delhi School in view - the "Prix d'elhi' becoming 1. T. Ro1cr Smith, 'Architectural An in India'; a lecture
the highest prize in the land. dclivcrcd <m 7th March 1873 and printed in Jn/ S. of A.,
The best decorative painters, sculptors and musi- Vol. XXI, 187'1pp. >18--87.
J . J. Loc.kwood Kipling, 'Indian Architecture. of To-day', i.n
cians will come visiting as masters. Shah Jeha.n TA,]ouma/ of lndia,t1frt. Vol. 1, no. 3, 1886, p, 1,
3 . E. B. Havcll, lndja,i. Ar<.hireuvr,:, 2J:1ded., 1927, p. 238,
roped in everybody he could - Italians especially, • · Robe.rt Byron, 'New Delhi', in the Archiw:ru,-al Rnn'ffll,
that we know. The Taj, however, has never been Vol. LXIX, January 1931, p, 1.

377
JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS PROCEEDINGS
s, S1en Nimon, Eu.rqpca,. Ar,Nt1e·t11r1 ,·,. India 1750-/8$(), lO, Grow&c's buildings were discuated and illustrated by
1968, Kipling, op. dt.,and ~ H.avell in lndjan Arch,·t«htl'c1 o;.
6. Tiu Build~. Vol. XXVJl, 30th Oct. 1869, p . 8s7. ci1.and b)' Mahrukh Tarapor in ' An and Empire' (Pn,D,
7. T . Roeer Smithtop.ci1. dissertation._ Ha.rvard), 1977. F. S, GrOW&e himadf wrote
8. John Begg, 'Architcctwc in India': a lecture del ivered on lndi4n Arc.h1tcUll1'1 of To-d'1)', 121 ut,npljfitd in Nm, Build-
12th AJ)rff 1920 andJ.rinttd in W f6".rna/ of tlu _RoJt_al ;nzs ;,. tit, Ou/a,,d1,holiar Disrriu, 1886.
/,mituu of Britilh rdUu,u, 3-rd se.ri.es, Vol. XXVII, 21. F. 0 . Ocnel, 'Indian Architttture and its Suitability for
1920,__pp. ,33- 49. Modem Re9uircmenu•: a lectwc ddlve:red M 2111 JuJy
9. J. L. Kipbna:,op.cit. 1913 and frtnt cd in the Jolil1"J'UU of the East Jndio Anoeia-
10. Sir Bartle E, FRre, 'ModeTn Archh ecuuc in Western ti"1t, Vol. '!., no. 4t.1913, pp. 274--93,
India', a lecture dclivtttd at the Royal ArchitccC\lr'8J u . Vinoent J. es-ch, '13.xa.mples of Modem Indian Arch.i1«-
Museum, 25th May 1870, and printed in Th, Buildi,rg u.a.re mainly i n Hyderabad State': lttrurc de.lh-e.red to W
Nff1's, Vol. XVll l , lrd June 1870, pp. 421-2. India Society, on 6th May 1942, snd printed in Indian
11. Robert Byr<m op. en. p. 14. Art and LttttrJ, nt-w aeries, Vol. XVI, no. 2, 1942, pp.
12. Quoted in B. F. L. ClarkctA,-,lrcan Catlr,drals oum'lU th, 49'"S9,

...
Sritish lrl,s, 19$8, p. 14. rubshawe's scheme was rcpro- 23. Tht' Marquis Cunon ot Kedlc,ion, Bdrish G(lt)t-rMuiu ;,.
du.c:cd i.n Tlu Bu1'/da, Vol. XXIX, 1865, p. 119. lndio, Vol. I 192,-, p. 189.
13 , T. Roacr Smhh, op. cit. Haven, Indian A,uiitut1m1, op. cit., p , 235.
14. Kipline Papen, 161h M41.y 1813; quoted in Mah.rukh •S· A. G . Sbooamith, ' PrC$ffll-Day Architecture in lnd.ia', in
Tarapor, ' John Lock.wood Kipling and British An Th, Ni'.,uutntlt Ctntur,y and Aft«, Vol. CXX, Feb. 1938 1
Education in India', in Vic.rorian S111.dit1 (lndiaN pp, 204"'JJ.
Un.ivenlty), Vol. XXIV, no. 1, Autumn 1980, p. 64. The Consulting Architect for (he Indian Government
is. Tiu TUIUJ of India 10th March 1981; qu0<ed in the (Joh.n Begg}, Annual Rtp07't on Ardli tt-Ctllral Wqrk i11
Jo=l of tlit Roya} lnsrltuu of Bn.risli Archiucu, 3rd
series, V()I. VII, 1900. p. 337. · .,_ /'lldia/or iii~ Yta-r 1915-1916, 1916, p , J.
lbid.J91/- JIJJ2, 1912, p . 6 .
16. Jam,es Feriruoon, •The Study of Indian Architcc1ure', a 28. John tse.~, •Architecture in India'. op. cit., p. ;34·3 .
iteturc ddivercd on 19th Dec, 1866 and printed inJ1tl, S. 29. Qu.oted in Christopher Huuey, Tht L'/t of Sir Edwin
of A., Vol. xv. 1866, pp. l..ut~111, 1950, p. 277.
17. Ibid., Vol. XXXU, 18h,p. 186; said in di.5;cuuion aftc-t lbid.,p.247.
paper on the ·su~t Architecture of India', by C. Pu.tdoi.\ Robert Byron, op. dt., p. 30,
CJarke. The Sp,:ctau1r, 241h Jan. 1931, p. 120.
18. R . Fe.llowe• Chisholm, 'Ne.,w Col~ge for tM Oaekwar of Shoostnhh, op. cit.
Baroda, with Nc>1e1 on Style and Dom:ical Constructi()n in
India·' : !ecru.re delivered c>n 11th Ju~ 1883 and (>rinted in The lecturer would like to r«ord his thanks to C3rolinc Harte
the T-ramtutions of 1Jic Royal / nu itutt qf 8n'11sls Ar, 1ti- Paul J()yoe, Mahnu:.h Tarapor and Ronald W'arwidt for their
1ec,s, ISC scrie,, Vol. XLVUI, 1881-3,pp, 1,U-6, help and advice, and to Genld ('..obb and Per.elope Chetwodc
19. J. L . Kipling, o p. cit. rorproviding photographs.

D I SCUSSION•

THE LORD FERR IER, so , DL: I was narurally THE LECTURER: Preserving any buildings any-
very interested in this lecture, and I saw myself in where requires educa1ion. You can have no preserva-
the picture of The Gateway of India. Seventy-fl\•c tion system diar is noc based on sympathetic public
years ago I was also a1 rhe laying of the foundation attitudes. The only possible hope in India is for
s tone of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, which I people to take: the buiJdings seriously and want to
distinctly remember, because it. was there that I keep them. That can only be done by certain people
first heard the lilt of 'God Bless the Prince of promoting them t hrough general education. This is
Wales'. The foundation s tone was laid by the Prince the '-'"BY that Victorian buildings have been pre-
of Wales, Jate.r George V. sei:ved in this country, owing to the enthusiastic
In considering this subject, it is well to remember campaigning of Sir John Betjeman and others.
the constant problem of transport of materials.
Simla, for instance, was 5,000 feet up. Portland MR. Ross FELLER: While visiting Simla
cement was not available except in or near the ports rcccndy I was very intrigued by the cast-iron build-
until afrer the First War. The first cement factory in ings that are now government offices and barracks.
India, I think, was erected in 1914. The other t hing They seemed ro be of a character more associated
ro remember, in a ciry Hke Bombay, is rhat it is not with dockland warehouses than hill stations. Would
always the beat that is the trouble, it is the terrific: you care 10 comment on these?
rainfall; seventy-five iocbes of rain fall in three THE LECTURER: The reason for CQS( iron in
months. Buildings have to be preuy robust for that. Simla was again the difficulty of getting any building
I remember more rhan twenty inches falling in materials up there. Until rhe nilway was opened in
one day. 1903 everything had to go up by a very circuitous
road, so I imagine materials could be taken up in
MR . DONALD INSALL ( A Member of Council prefabricated pans. Casr•iron architectuie is a
of t he Society): I wonder what our speaker would fascinating subject, and one thinks of alJ tbe
think 10 be the first posirive srep rowards conserving churches cxponed from rhis country in the nine-
what one migbr regard as the British heritage in teenth century.
India - or should we now say, the Indian heritage THE CHAIRMAN: The Crawford Market was
from Brirain ? Migh t this be to secure the introduc- imported in casr iron, I think.
tion of some kind of listing system, which I believe THE LECTURER: It must have been.
does not yet exist ? Or may h rat her be somehow to
educare, and ro enliven an appreeiarion of &.rehi- MR. JAMES STEVENS CVRL: There were many
t ecture? I wonder which of those two aims you may designs for prepackaged cast-iron gothic churches
feel is more likely to be productive? exported after the Great Exhibition of 1862. These
were clad in corrugated iron sheeting, also used at
• Sec al:so Cotre,pondcR«, p.387. the 1862 Exhibition.
MAY 1981 BRITISH ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA 1857-1947
THE CHAIRMAN: The expor1 of corrugated ceremony in 1931 when the Viceroy, Lord Irwin,
iron to the East is one of the terrible legacies we made a memorable speech, in which he said he
have give.n to India. My own particular study is of hoped that future generations in India would keep
traditional ffjmafayan temples. On those you get New Delhi as it was designed to be with its
either wooden shingles or the most beautiful graded marvellous vistas of the Purana Kila and other
stone tiles, or sometimes slate if che temple is in ruined cities of former capitals which Sir Edwin
Mandi where there are slate quarries. ln the mjd Lutycns had been so careful to incorporate into his
ninetc:<:nth-ccntury dnwings by H. M. Oldfield, plan. Alas! 1his was not to be t Because in 1947 when
which Mildred Archer b•s catalogued in rhe ln<lia so many refugees came south from Pakistan, the
Office Library, the artist shows early houses built rich ones among them quickly bought land on the
by the British in Simla in 1he traditional style of the ten miles of plain between New Delhi and the Kurb
area with large tiles, but then we introduced cor- Minar and covered it with the most appalling mush-
rugated iron which has become a status symbol all room growth of unrelaced modern buildiogs it has
over the Himalayas. In Kulu and Kashmir if you ever been my fate to sec.
build a bungalow or villa, you put corrugated iron Just to end I will tell you a story about the
on and paint it bright green or red. Does anybody Viceroy's House. When I was a girl I used to take
know when corrugated iron was first invented and our O\\'n and the Viceroy's guests sightseeing round
when it was introduced co the East? some of the former cities and other monuments -
there are said to be about five thousand of them - on
MR. FRED LIGHTFOOT (Commonwealth Insti- che Delhi plain. On one occasion 1 was due to take
tute): There is interesting and encouraging news Lord and Lady Allenby out to the Kutb Minar and
from Madras. Some people in the university there, Tughlakabad but Lord Allcnby came alone. I asked
led by the Vice-Chancellor, are taking an active why his wife was not with him. 'Well', he said, 'this
interest in the restoration of Chisholm's Senate morning she was knocked out by her breakfast tray'.
House. There is a prospect now that the govern- Sir Edwin had designed an ingenious breakfast tray
ment of Tamil Nadu Madras will find the necessary which came our of the wall in front of you when you
money t o refurbish che building. There is also a pressed a button. Poor Lady Allenby bad been a
great wish in the university to find a proper use for bit 100 low in the bed and had been knocked in-
the building when it is res1ored. One of the pos- sensible by it.
sibiJitjes being considered at the present time is- I now wish to thank our lecturer, Gavin Stamp,
that it might house a Commonwcahh Centre for instructing and entertaining us so delightfully
similar to the Commonwealth Institute in London. tonight. You will notice that I do not refer to him
as Doc10r in spite of his distinguished academic
TH£ CHAIRMAN: I thought I knew the build- record. He does noc want to be referred to as
ings in Bombay and Calcutta fairly well but many I Doctor. In my young days only German scholars
saw tonight for the first time. It is wonderful how used this title: they liked to be called Herr Doktor,
our lecture.r, having only visited India once for o or even Herr Profe:ssor Dokcor. On the other hand
few months, has ferreted out so much nineteenth people like Maurioe Bowra of Wadham College,
and early twentieth century British architecture. In and John Sparrow or All Souls, were very proud
the case of New Delhi, the buildings are of course tbat they were not Doctors. On your behalf I want
more familiar as It is the capital of a great rountry 10 thank Gavin for his remarkable selection of
visited by thou.sands of foreigners every winter. I slides and his inspiring description of the buildings
was fortunate in being there for che inauguration shown in them.

379