Barapullah Nala in Spate

I went down to the Barapullah Nala (drain) to photograph the progress of the elevated road, and found the nala in spate because of today's heavy rains. Here are a few photos.

The first photo is of the nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. There is no gap between the water and the railway bridge's girders, and all kinds of flotsam is accumulating at the girder. The water level has reached the settlement at the right of the image. Construction work on the elevated road to the left is continuing despite the spate.

Barapullah Nala at the railway line near Nizamuddin Railway Station. Click on image to enlarge



These next images are from the elevated road construction site at Mathura Road. Construction-related vehicles that were in the nala have at least half their wheels submerged!

A truck, earth-mover and large crane inside the swollen nala. Next to the truck is a large pre-cast segment of the road. I don't think there is any danger of any of these washing away, though!







Here are images of the elevated road construction, which I'd gone to photograph.

At the railway line and old Barapullah bridge near Nizamuddin railway station (Click on these images to enlarge)


And at Mathura Road

Another Usurped Gumbad

One of the side advantages of Delhi Metro is that it's elevated sections skim over Delhi's low roof-line (at least for now), providing long views of rooftops and the surrounding city fabric.

On one such journey on the Red Line, I spotted an old gumbad (domed building) sticking out from surrounding newer houses near the Pratap Nagar station. I got off to explore the gumbad, and of course at ground level it was much harder to spot in the maze of surrounding residential streets. After some nosing and asking around, which included a classic exchange between me and a street vendor, that went something like this (in Hindi of course):

Me: "Do you know where the old gumbad is?"
Vendor: "What?"
Me: "There's an old gumbad somewhere around here, do you know where it is?"
Vendor: "You mean that thing right behind you?"

I turned around, and of course the gumbad was encroached on all sides, and people had put up property walls all around the structure, but luckily on three sides you could at least see the original walls of the structure. I asked people at a goods godown (which was one of the surrounding encroaches) if I could take a couple of shots of the place. They allowed me to, but unfortunately the photos I took were overexposed. Here is the best of the lot - you can see the top of the dome of the (probably) late Mughal structure peeping out from behind the tin roofs and foliage.

Lodhi-ear Toilet Update: Revenge of the Modern

The "Lodhi-era toilet" coming up at Defence Colony Market is much nearer completion now, and while we've been spared a Lodhi tomb replica, this is now turning out to be some kind of "modern design smashing through a representation of Delhi's past" kind of thing. So it seems a bullet has been dodged (no Lodhi-era toilet!), but this throws up a whole new set of intriguing ideas!

The new public toilet at Defence Colony Market


The design concept for this structure seems to have been that a that modern, world-class (since that is such a catchphrase these days) Delhi, represented by the glass, steel and aluminum facade, is breaking through the old, staid stone edifice of a Delhi of the past. The technological advancement of today is (finally!) breaking through simple, low-tech yesterday. Worldliness is breaking through unrefined indigenousness.

However, to me, the stone edifice represents not just the Delhi of earlier centuries, but could also refer to the Delhi of earlier "government-sanctioned" modernism from the 1960s-80s, which used a lot of stonework of this kind. In this way, it represents the gleaming facade of today's "public private partnership" (PPP) model breaking through the older facade of complete government project-control. Nehruvian modernism, which itself tried to break free of the past, is now pushed into and lumped with that past, with all it's connotations of "failure" and the need to break free from it.

Of course this is reading a lot into a public toilet (with a cafe above it), and it might just be a much more jocular and playful interplay of old and new to attract tourists, but if there is at all an intention to represent a break, then I'm pretty sure it's not just a break from the far away and thus benign era of Delhi as necropolis, but also a reference, even if just associatively, to a much more recent past as well.

I also have to add that for some reason, these toilets are nearly as well guarded as Rashtrapati Bhawan is - there are guards posted on all sides of the structure, and even a few thugs lounging about with the guards. It took all my photographing wiles to take these photos! Maybe it's just the contractor's men, maybe this is the usual modus operandi for commonwealth games construction and this one is just much more noticeable because it's out in the public, or maybe the builders are so pleased with their design that they don't want anyone copying it!

Whatever the answers are to all these issues, from the beginning, this take on public toilets has just been a weird and fascinating exercise! We also need a new name for these toilets, since "Lodhi-era toilet" is no longer applicable. "New Indian neoliberal public toilets", perhaps? :)

Delhi's new "Lodhi era" toilets

Okay, so when I mentioned a few posts back about dearly lacking "coordinated innovation" among the various government agencies that look after Delhi's urban landscape, this is not the solution I had in mind! Public toilets that look like Lodhi-era tombs from the 15th and 16th centuries? Really?

Public toilets under construction at Defence Colony Market




These new "world-class toilets" (that's the term that was repeatedly said to me by people at and around these construction sites when they were at a nascent stage) look like they're the crazy brainchild of some MCD and ASI officials who had had a few pegs of Solan No.1 too many sitting together one evening (I'm not claiming that this actually happened)!

While the finished product of this example at Defence Colony Market is yet to be seen, I really don't know what they were thinking. Why make a public toilet look like some of Delhi's most visible historic landmarks?

If anyone is wondering why these toilets are on two floors, the ground floor houses the toilets themselves, and the floor above (with a mezzanine as well, I think) will be a cafe or restaurant. Go figure!

To be fair though, others I've talked to don't think this is a bad idea, and actually like this structure as it comes up. Others still think it will encourage pissing in the actual tombs strewn about Delhi. I guess we'll have to wait a bit more to see how all this shapes up ...

Barapullah Elevated Road and Khan Khana's Tomb

A short note to follow up on my post about construction work for the elevated road around the Barapullah bridge, in which my concluding remarks were that the separate governmental authorities need to really work together cohesively in Delhi to accommodate both conservation and development, and use Delhi's historic architecture as a unique facet of the city. Unfortunately, it looks like another section of the elevated road construction may indicate that examples of such collaboration are pretty hard to come by.

I'm talking about the stretch of the elevated road that passes in front of Khan Khana's Tomb, also in the Nizamuddin area. Khan Khana was one of the Navratans in Akbar's court, and is the same person as the poet Rahim of 2-line dohas fame.

Khan Khana's tomb hidden behind the under-construction pillars of the Barapullah Nullah elevated road


News articles from previous months state that part of the ASI's objection to the elevated road was that it will obstruct the view of Khan Khana's tomb from the adjacent Mathura Road. Due to this objection, the height of the elevated road was to be raised at this point, so that it passed over the view-line of the tomb from Mathura Road. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the under-construction pillars for the elevated road that lie to the east of Mathura Road, the side that the tomb is on, are right adjacent to Mathura Road, and block the view to the monument anyway. So despite the raised road height, the pillars themselves will obstruct the view of the tomb.

A closer view of the tomb and pillars. The billboard also blocks the view to the tomb, but that's a minor issue compared to the obstruction the pillars will cause


It could be argued that the proximity of the pillars to the road was required to span the road, but much larger spans are being bridged on this road itself, so the special situation of this location should definitely have warranted the extra expense of a larger span. On top of this, the pillar to the west of Mathura Road is pretty far from the road, for no apparent reason (see the panoramic photo below).

Panoramic view of the elevated road construction over Mathura Road. The pillars to the left (west) of the road are set back from Mathura Road when they needn't be, and the pillars to the right (east), which should have been set back from Mathura Road to maintain a clear view of Khan Khana's tomb (which is in the center background) from the road, aren't. Sad irony that is all too common here in Delhi (click image to enlarge)


Of course factors such as foundational needs could have dictated the placement of these pillars, but it seems really odd that the pillars east of Mathura Road couldn't have been shifted a few meters further east, thus not negating the effect that raising the elevated road is to accomplish.

To me, this seems to be just another example of bad, non-creative planning and lack of coordination.

Nila Gumbad in the News (too)

Since I wrote about Nila Gumbad and the dispute between the Railways and ASI in my previous blog post, I thought I'd go visit Nila Gumbad once again to see just what the situation was there, how close the railways line was to the monument etc. I've visited Nila Gumbad a few times before, but had always just seen it from the west - from the side of Humayun's Tomb.

The image below shows Nila Gumbad and the area around it, taken from close to the eastern pavilion that lies along the outer wall of Humayun's Tomb. The road that the ASI wants to reroute around Nila Gumbad currently passes between the monument and Humayun's Tomb. It's also very probable that in constructing the road, the arched wall connecting Nila Gumbad with Humayun's Tomb was broken, which the ASI probably wants to restore as well.

Nila Gumbad from Humayun's Tomb. The railway line is visible behind the gumbad, and the road that the ASI wants to reroute lies in front of the gumbad



On this visit I went around to the east of the monument, on the side of the railway line, and was quite shocked to see that the Nizamuddin railway station starts right next to the monument! So it's not just that the railway line passes very close to Nila Gumbad, but the railway station also begins right there. An approximately 5 meter wide area has been left around the monument, and then the railway property beings. The station and railway lines lie to the east of the monument, and there is some kind of railway storage area to the south of it. The panoramic shot below is taken from north of the monument, and shows the proximity of the station, railway line and monument.

Panoramic view showing the railway station and gumbad . Click to enlarge



As can be seen from the panoramic shot, a dirt path leads from in front (north) of the monument, which leads to a spot that is used as an informal crossing across the railway lines to the other side, i.e. towards Serai Kale Khan. I saw quite a few people using this path to cross the railway lines (there is no designated crossing on this side of the railways station). There is of course the issue of security vis-a-vis the railway station, since anyone can easily walk from here onto the platform.

But the closeness of the station really makes me see the railways point of view. There is hardly any space to construct a road around the monument on this side, and any changes to the railways station and storage area will require at least a bit of a re-think and re-design, though if they put their heads to it I'm sure they can get to a workaround (pun intended).

The board indicating the beginning of Nizamuddin railway station is clearly visible from the gumbad platform


A couple of shots of Nila Gumbad - showing the blue tile-work that give the monument it's name and make it unique

Barapullah In The News

An image of Barapullah I took sometime in 2009, showing its basic design and construction (and the ganda nala - dirty drain - flowing under it)


Barapullah is an early 17th century bridge close to Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb in the Nizamuddin area. The monument has been in the news recently as part of the ongoing tussle between the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) in Delhi on one side, and various other governmental bodies (such as the railways, Delhi metro, MCD, Commonwealth Games people etc) on the other, playing out an intra-government-department preservation-versus-development urban slug-fest. This fight has been brought to a head by the ongoing rush of infrastructural projects in Delhi in general, and Commonwealth Games related projects in particular.

As Delhi scrambles to complete these infrastructure projects before the October 2010 Commonwealth Games, the ASI is attempting to block those projects that come too close to the monuments under its protection (apparently no construction within 100 meters of a protected monument is allowed - a rule that obviously hasn't been followed too strictly for the past five decades since it's been in place).

The Barapullah Nala (drain/rivulet), which the Barapullah bridge spans at Nizamuddin and which snakes through part of south Delhi, is being used as a path for an elevated road that will connect the Ring Road near Serai Kale Khan with Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, and is intended to ease traffic flow between the stadium and the Commonwealth Games Village on the east bank of the Yamuna. Some of the pillars being erected for this elevated road are just about 10 meters away from Barapullah.

So the Barapullah example is being publicized in the media as the most egregious case of flouting the "no construction around monuments" rule. While this is definitely the case, I just wanted to bring to light the existing state of the Barapullah monument, current elevated road construction notwithstanding. Newspaper reports give the impression that Barapullah was a well-preserved monument, or at least a somewhat-preserved one, whose protected space is only now being violated by the elevated bridge construction. In reality Barapullah has been anything but well protected over the past decades. In fact, Barapullah is a unique example that indicates all that is wrong with the preservation process.

The first problem of course is that the nala which flows under the bridge has been an open sewer for a long time. However, what makes the current concern over the new elevated road construction so ironic is that a concrete bridge, parallel to Barapullah, has existed about 3 meters away from Barapullah for at least a couple of decades. I have a vague memory of using Barapullah itself as a thoroughfare road to cross over from Jangpura to Nizamuddin as a kid, but the parallel concrete bridge has existed for all my adult life. This parallel bridge is now used for heavy throughfare (it leads to the close-by Nizamuddin railway station and in fact a blue-line bus route terminates here), and Barapullah itself is the site for a makeshift daily market. The parallel bridge was probably constructed to divert vehicular traffic from Barapullah, but surely it needn't have been built just 3 meters away from it.

The approach to Barapullah, on which a makeshift market is now set up daily. This and all following images were taken on Jan 25, 2010


The decades old concrete bridge running parallel to Barapullah is visible behind the small turrets of Barapullah, and is just a few feet away from it



The images below clearly shows the proximity between the original Barapullah and the parallel concrete bridge. We can also see the sewage and garbage accumulated at the foot of Barapullah, as well as the high-tension electricity pylon built very close to Barapullah. The columns under construction in the central middle-distance are for the proposed elevated road. The main north-south line of the Indian railways passes close to Barapullah as well. All in all, not a very picturesque locale, to say the least, and with all kinds of preservation-law violations all around.

Parallel concrete bridge and Barapullah




Barapullah from the parallel bridge


Vendors on Barapullah with the under-construction elevated road's columns behind


I would estimate the closest column of the elevated road to be about 10 meters from Barapullah, while the existing parallel bridge is about 3 meters distant from Barapullah


Elevated road construction with Barapullah behind


A panoramic view of Barapullah, its parallel bridge and the elevated road construction. In the background on the right we can see the base of the roadway itself being set up over the completed columns. On the left, through the steel-mesh fencing, is visible the other side of the elevated road construction. Click to enlarge


The elevated road construction approaching Barapullah. The main north-south line of the Indian railways lies in front of it. This view is looking eastwards towards the Yamuna from Barapullah


Here are a couple of images of construction on the other side ... looking westwards, taken from the parallel bridge. The dome of Khan Khana's Tomb is visible in the background.





What does all this tell us?

As we can see, the setting of Barapullah is a real mess. It has a heavily trafficked parallel bridge mere feet away from it, a large electricity pylon close by, an open sewer passing under it, a major national railway line passing close by, and is used as a makeshift market space. It has no protected area around it, and is surrounded by garbage and dirt. The elevated road being constructed over it, with its columns a few meters away from Barapullah, will not so much ruin the setting of Barapullah as add to the misfortunes of the monument.

Barapullah is a unique example, because it has various factors acting against it. Usually with monuments in Delhi it is a simple case of real estate pressures that threaten them. If the government/ASI can acquire the land around the monument to preserve it, as in the case of Humayun's Tomb and Khan Khana's Tomb nearby, the monuments can begin to be protected, and if they can't get to the monuments in time, like in so many urban villages in Delhi, the monuments are encroached upon or right up to.

Being a bridge that spans a nala running through a major portion of south Delhi, Barapullah was never going to be encroached in that same way, but rather was going to be targeted by infrastructural entities that require a clear path through the city, like the high tension electricity pylons and now the elevated road. Being close to the Nizamuddin railway station, there was heavy traffic on Barapullah in the past, which is now diverted to the parallel bridge built next to it. Being on an open drain (once a tributary of the Yamuna on which temple ghats existed - and still do), there is always going to be untreated sewage lapping the base of the monument.

To me, the Barapullah situation encapsulates the dysfunction of our government (and of us). The slums and squatter settlements around the monument, which exist in the liminal space along the open drain and railway line, are a function of the lack of public housing, and are the reason why the makeshift market exists on the monument (though the market also serves the residential neighborhoods away from the immediate vicinity of the monument).

Apathy towards historic monuments and good planning practices in general, and apathy towards generating creative solutions to urban problems has led to the parallel road next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess in the area overall, created by the busy Nizamuddin railway station nearby. The railway station, which continues to grow in importance, has for long needed an efficient traffic scheme that also caters to the protection of Barapullah, but the various government bodies that are required to be involved for such a scheme to succeed seem unable to collaborate to design and implement it.

In the face of all this apathy, finding alternative and natural solutions to wastewater management, which these open drains in Delhi would seem ideally suited for, remains a pipe dream, which is the reason why the black water flowing under Barapullah continues to ooze by freely, adding to the vast sewer that is the Yamuna.


Where does the recent news-coverage fit into all this?

Apart from the fact that the newspapers should send someone down to check on the situation of Barapullah before indicating that the new elevated road is violating the space around it, the reporting on the feud between the ASI and other government bodies points to just why so much dysfunction occurs. The fact that the ASI has not been able to coordinate in the construction of the elevated road indicates the lack of collaboration and creative solution finding that has led to the construction of the parallel bridge next to Barapullah, and the traffic mess around the Nizamuddin railway station.

Another nearby example - the Nila Gumbad monument - also in the news recently, points to the same lack of collaboration and indeed blatant antagonism between government departments. This monument lies on the strip of land between the Humayun's Tomb compound and the same railway line that passes close to Barapullah. Humayun's Tomb is a World Heritage site, and the ASI wants to incorporate the Nila Gumbad monument, which is also a Mughal-era structure and an important example of Persian influence on Mughal architecture, into the overall Humayun's Tomb complex. To do this, they requested the railways to allow a narrow road that cuts through the space between Nila Gumbad and Humayun's Tomb to be re-routed around Nila Gumbad, and onto railway land. The railways of course have refused this request.

The recent news coverage has exposed not just current feuds between such government departments, but also shows us how such apathy and dysfunction have existed for so long. No one wants to help the other, and no one wants the trouble of getting to creative, collaborative and long-lasting solutions to problems. If I'm permitted to extend this argument, this is the case not just with the government, but with the attitude of the public as well.


Are there any signs of hope in all this?

I actually think that there might be hope in all this. The fact that long-dormant ASI rules are being brought up might indicate that there is enough (developmental, infrastructural) activity at an urban scale, and adequate media and public scrutiny being placed on that activity, to force governmental departments to make their disputes public and legal.

Hopefully, as large-scale infrastructure projects mushroom in Delhi, adequate public scrutiny will emerge, not just at the implementation stage but also at the planning stage.

In a place as rich in history and historical monuments as Delhi, the preservation and protection of such monuments will always be of prime importance, but a balance will have to be maintained between development and preservation. For example, it shouldn't be too hard for urban design and planning professionals to come up with a solution to the Barapullah situation that addresses the needs of connectivity and traffic around Nizamuddin railway station, the elevated road project, the nearby railway line, wastewater management and electricity distribution, while at the same time helping to protect and promote the Barapullah monument. All that is needed is for the actors (both governmental as well as private citizens) involved in preservation as well as development to work together in finding innovative solutions.

Easier said than done, but up to this stage of Delhi's recent history, neither preservation nor development have taken place to anything approaching a satisfactory degree. The few preservation successes that do exist in Delhi point to the fact that when there is a will to do it right, it's possible even here.

Dilli Darshan: Shahjahanabad I: Khari Baoli & Katra Neel

A Brief History of Shahjahanabad

Carrying on with my Dilli Darshan posts, I'm going to put up a series of them about Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). Shahjahanabad is the 17th century Mughal walled city that also contained the Mughal palace and court, and which was the occupied part of Delhi during the time the British took increasing control of the city throughout the first half of the 19th century. Which means that Shahjahanabad was what they took increasing control of, and was the core area that Delhi grew out of in the late 19th c. and throughout the 20th c.

The 19th c. also saw the consequent dimming of the Mughal empire (which had been in decline throughout the 18th c. as well), and it's eventual snuffing out after the unsuccessful 1857 rebellion against British rule. Shahjahanabad was the main site for all this. After 1857 the British took complete control of Shahjahanabad, converted the walled palace area into their garrison in the city, and destroyed many structures within both the palace and city areas. They initially resided within the walled city, but later moved out to the Civil Lines area just north of Shahjahanabad, and the cantonment was subsequently moved to the area that is now Delhi University's North Campus. Of course once the decision came through in 1912 to move the capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi, the focus slowly drifted to the site south of Shahjahanabad that came to be known as New Delhi.

The present urban fabric of the walled city can be traced back to the late 19th c. and early 20th c., when the British directly and indirectly reorganized the city. The sprawling havelis of Mughal nobles and royalty were replaced by smaller havelis, houses and shops. After independence and partition in 1947, these structures were further subdivided and altered by refugees moving into the empty houses and shops left behind by fleeing Muslim residents of Shahjahanabad. The Shahjahanabad we see today is a result of these series of subdivisions, combined with the particular nature and scale of commerce that has taken place here over the past few decades.

Some of this commerce has it's roots in the distant past, with certain shops, streets and localities tracing their trade back to Mughal times. Other areas have more recent commercial histories, though in the lore of contemporary Delhi, these trading areas are no less potent in their mythos than the older ones.

The fact that Old Delhi (I'm going to use Old Delhi and Shahjahanabad interchangeably throughout these series of posts, so non-Dilliwalas please bear with me) has become/remained a center of commerce since the 1940s is itself an interesting phenomenon. My take is that since it was always centrally located in expanding Delhi (whether expanding in the 50s or 80s); was not affected by zoning and development laws in the same way as the rest of Delhi was (similar in this sense to many of Delhi's urban villages); and was a preexisting built up area (so there was no need to build from scratch), it became a magnate for small-scale industries and wholesale commerce in ways that other areas of Delhi were not allowed to become, or had to be planned and constructed to become. This led to the present matrix of commerce that takes place in Old Delhi till today.

I feel that this grip on Delhi's commercial psyche is slowly being loosened (and probably has been since the early 90s when India's economy opened up), but to what extent this is true is to be seen, and in any case Old Delhi still holds a special place for people looking to purchase particular kinds of goods.

The focus of these Shahjahanabad photos is to capture the old city with its architecture (such as they exists today) as well as contemporary life in the city, since both occur simultaneously in this space, and cannot be extricated from one another, especially when the canvas of the photographs is the broad urban landscape.


Khari Baoli & Katra Neel areas (& Lahori Gate & Fatehpuri Chowk)

As I've said before, my whole Dilli Darshan project is based on and heavily influenced by Luck Peck's Delhi: A Thousand Years of Building, and these Shahjahanabad posts are no different - I've organized my exploration of the walled city in much the same way that Peck organized her descriptions. So I begin with the north western corner of Shahjahanabad - in the Khari Baoli and Lahori Gate areas.

An idea of the extent of Shahjahanabad - which is the densely built-up semi-circular area that covers most of the image. The general area covered by the photographs in this post are marked


The general sequence of photos is indicated by the numbering below. Click on the image to enlarge



Fatehpuri Chowk

Beginning with Fatehpuri Chowk, which lies at the far end of Chandni Chowk road - the most famous stretch of Shahjahanabad (arguably apart from the area around Jami Masjid). I had never been to Fatehpuri Chowk before these visits, and it really gives a sense of what the city would have looked like in decades past.

As far as I can tell, Fatehpuri Chowk is actually the single name given to two chowks (road intersections) that are very close together. Chandni Chowk road and Khari Baoli road are offset by a few dozen feet, and the two intersections caused by this offset are both covered by the name Fatehpuri Chowk. Fatehpuri Masjid, which lies at the end of Chandni Chowk road, is responsible for this offset, since the road needs to skirt this mosque (which also gives the chowk its name). In any case, this offsetting has now led to Chandni Chowk and Khari Baoli being very different entities, as we shall see below and in subsequent blogs.

Fatehpuri Chowk where Kahri Baoli road begins (or ends), which is definitely the more interesting of the two intersections visually







Fatehpuri Chowk where Khari Baoli road begins, looking towards Fatehpuri Mosque (which is directly behind the set of shops visible at the center of the image). One minaret of the mosque is sticking out to the right





Fatehpuri Chowk - the area between the two intersections







Fatehpuri Chowk where Chandni Chowk road ends





Looking towards Katra Bariyan



Staircase leading up to Coronation Building at Fatehpuri Chowk


Coronation building courtyard and surrounding houses. The center of the courtyard is now occupied by makeshift shops, leaving a narrow passageway at the edge of the courtyard for circulation







Khari Baoli Road

Khari Baoli road, beginning from Fatehpuri Chowk, is a wholesale spice market, and the activity of porters, sellers and shoppers is quite fascinating, as is the pungent odor of the area!

Porters awaiting work on Khari Baoli road


Khari Baoli road




Houses on Khari Baoli road




A house near Lahori Gate


A dilapidated old structure near Lahori Gate, of which no gate remains today. Lahori Gate was one of the many entry points into Shahjahanabad, only a few of which are still in existence in any state. However, Lahori Gate remains the name of the area



Naya Bazaar Road

Naya Bazaar road passes in front of Lahori Gate, and in this area accommodates a wholesale grain market.

Early morning bullock-cart gridlock on Naya Bazaar road


Porter work coming to an end while it's still early in the morning


Cattle rewards


Buildings on Naya Bazaar Road






A remnant of British colonial neoclassicism at the end of Naya Bazaar road


Many buildings on the wider Shahjahanabad streets would have looked like this - a balcony on the first-floor creating a covered arcade on the ground-floor where the shops are. Today, buildings like these on heavier trafficked streets are much altered



Spice sellers at the end of Naya Bazaar road







SP Mukherji Marg

This road (marg means road) is where the Old Delhi railway station is located, which was the main railway station for Delhi before the New Delhi station was built, though Old Delhi station is still heavily used. The part of the road the I cover here is some distance from the station, though many old hotels are located on this stretch and, I believe, still operational.

Haveli entrances at the end of SP Mukherji marg





Hotels near Old Delhi railway station. They look like they have art deco pasts from the 1920s & 30s, though they've been heavily modified since then









More hotels facing SP Mukherji marg, these ones in at the edge of the Katra Neel area





Church Mission Marg

This roads leads from SP Mukherji Marg back to Fatehpuri Chowk.

A hotel on Church Mission road





Entrance to a commercial space in the Khari Baoli area hidden behind the high facade of a Church Mission road-facing building





St Stephen's Church, which gives Church Mission road its name



On Church Mission road, closer to Fatehpuri Chowk









Khari Baoli Area

Moving from main roads into the narrow alleys within Khari Baoli neighborhood. The various neighborhoods of Shahjahanabad are really interesting to explore, bringing out different aspects of the city and the changes that have happened to it in past decades.

Khari Baoli area


An old gateway, either to a haveli or a particular neighborhood area



The entrance to an old haveli, now much altered


Doorway inside the haveli area


The haveli has been divided into multiple housing units, interspersed with narrow alleyways



Another haveli in another part of Khari Baoli



Katra Neel area

Katra Neel is on Chandni Chowk road, adjacent to the Khari Baoli area.

Katra Neel alley in a downpour


An old wooden balcony


Old doorway peeping out from behind more recent construction



Katral Neel is full of Shivalays (shrines to Shiva) such as like this one, in the courtyards of former havelis. These originate from the 19th c.







A busy alleyway in Katra Neel


An art deco facade. Such early 20th c. "high-architecture" facades keep popping up in Shahjahanabad. This one reminds me of baroque architecture in Rome!



Haveli facade on the edge of Katra Neel, where it faces SP Mukherji marg.






Haveli minaret


Detail



An adjoining haveli, with neo-gothic influences




Inside the neo-gothic haveli is an industrial-haveli landscape