A jaunt up north into the old British area passes several interesting British sights and a few much older ones. It is best to explore by car, forging on right up to North Ridge which at dusk feels hauntingly Raj. Here are a few places worth seeking out; to guide your driver, you will need a map. For M M Kaye, The Delhi of my childhood was the old walled city of the Moguls and the British built cantonment area that lay beyond it in the shadow of the Ridge.' New Delhi was, for her, 'mere foundations'.
Netaji Subhash Marg runs up past the fort, down a hill and under Lothian Bridge, a railway bridge. Just after it, Lothian Cemetery lurks on the right, its gate beneath a grey crenellated tower, its assortment of gravestones including a grand sandstone one to Thomas Dunn, erected by James Skinner. Back on what is now Lothian Road, you find an arched ruin in the middle of it. This is the remains of the British Magazine, with a bit further along. The huge ammunition storehouse was deliberately blown up on 11 May 1857 to prevent the freedom fighters, who had mutinied in Meerut the previous day, ever getting hold of it. The bang was said to have been heard at Meerut, 50 kilometers (31 miles) away. The grey obelisk beyond is the Telegraph Memorial from which the Anglo-Indian operator warned the British army of what was going on, concluding in fine Indian English 'We must shut up' ('We are off). And the dilapidated, columned building on the right was the first British Residency in Delhi, first occupied by Sir David Ochterlony in 1803. Also Visit - Delhi Sightseeing Tour by Car
Further along the road, the pastel yellow, domed, Greek Revival St James's Church (consecrated in 1836) stands in an immaculate churchyard with pots of flowers and a cluster of Skinner family tombs. This was Delhi's first church, built by Colonal James Skinner (c1778-1841), the son of a Scotsman and a Rajput. As a half-caste, he was at first refused by the British army and served a Maratha chief. Later accepted by the British, he founded Skinner's Horse, cavalry regiments distinguished by their yellow uniforms. Inside the church, the Skinner family pew is at the front and Skinner's tomb is by the altar, while monuments to William Fraser, Thomas Metcalfe and others coat the floors and walls. As art historian Philip Davies acutely observes, the church is 'a resplendent monument to that curious mixture of martial and pious qualities that pervaded Anglo-India and which reached its most distasteful extremes during the Mutiny'.
Kashmiri Gate is a little further on, just after one splendid .survivor of the smart shops that served the Raj. The facade of Varma’s leather shop, on the left, proudly lists its patrons, from Queen Mary and Lord Willingdon to the Lord Mayor of London; and if von go in and ask, you can see the treasured album of the shop's illustrious history.
Kashmiri Gate is the only surviving double-arched enirance to Shahjahanabad. It was through here that royal processions set off to escape Delhi summers for the cool gardens of Kashmir. And it was here, in September 1857, that 5,000 British came down from the Ridge, breached the walls and, after six days of fighting an estimated 20,000 Indians, retook Delhi. The hero was the legendary Brigadier-General John Nicholson, whose devoted Indian followers included some who believed Nikktll Seyn' was the reincarnation of Brahma. He died at the gate as victory approached, to be buried in Nicholson Cemetery and Gardens found further up the road on the left, by the Qudsia Road crossing. Peacocks and striped squirrels lend an exoticism to the eerie Victorian graves. Further back in history, in 1748, pretty Qudsia Gardens on the right side of the road were laid out by Qudsia Begum, a rags-to-riches dancing girl who became emperor Muhammad Shah's favourite wife and mother of the next emperor, Ahmad Shah. Of the garden buildings, just the west gateway and mosque survive. M M Kaye remembers both gardens as favourite spots for Raj nannies. The first 'in which the chota-missahibs (little misses) were unlikely to get up to any mischief... and she enjoyed a good gossip with her fellow countrywomen'; the second for its 'glorious, planless jumble of creeper-clad ruins, flowering trees and shrubs, bamboo thickets, date palms, eucalyptus, peepul and kikar trees. There were roses everywhere...’. Also Visit - Golden Triangle Tour Packages
Still on the same road, by now called Sham Nath Marg, the Oberoi Maidens Hotel is on the right, built with Raj spaciousness by Mr Maiden in 1900 and later one of Lutyens's homes while he watched his new city being built. (If you go on north from here, the Old Secretariat is on the right, with Metcalfe House at the end of the lane just before it. Sir Thomas Metcalfe, Resident (1835-53), ran his house 'with the greatest punctuality. After he had had his breakfast, his hookah was brought in and placed behind his chair.' His riverside home had one room dug out under the Yamuna to beat the summer heat).
Turning left opposite the Maidens into Underhill Road, you come to an area reeking of the Raj, with grand colonial houses set in leafy gardens. A turn right at the end into Rajpur Road leads into scrubland. At the top, a sharp left turn into Rani Jhansi Marg leads back on to North Ridge.
Flagstaff Tower is on the crest, a circular tower where British women and children gathered on the fateful 11 May 1857 before fleeing to Karnal. The remains of Chauburji Masjid are further along, on the right, probably part of Feroz Shah Tughluq's Kuskh-i-Shikar (hunting palace) built in 1356; and Pir-Ghaib, in the compound of Hindu Rao Hospital, is part of it, too. William Fraser's country retreat, known as Hindu Rao's House, is just beyond, on the same side, built in 1830 with obligatory verandas and pilasters. (Fraser was assassinated in 1835 at point-blank range by a Nawab who suspected him of having designs on his beautiful sister). Next, on the left, is one of emperor Ashoka's extraordinary pillars (273-236 BC).
Finally, the Mutiny Memorial on the way down from the Ridge is an octagonal, tapering tower similar to the Gothic memorial Eleanor crosses in London. Built to commemorate the British who died in 1857, it was renamed Ajitgarh on the twenty-fifth anniversary of India's freedom and aptly converted into a memorial for the Indian martyrs who rose against colonial rule. At the crossroads, a left turn leads back along Boulevard Road to Kashmiri Gate.
For more information on North of Old Delhi - A Trip into Raj Land contact Swan Tours one of the leading travel agents in India.