Garden Gate, Bulandshahr

Garden Gate is a building in Bulandshahr, India, constructed as a gateway to the Bulandshahr public garden, also known as Moti Bagh. It leads to the Town Hall and was built in the late 19th century by Rao Umrao Singh of Kuchesar, who donated a significant fund for its construction. The project was encouraged by Frederic Growse, a British civil servant of the Indian Civil Service, who had been appointed collector of the region in 1878.

Garden Gate, Bulandshahr
Garden Gate, Bulandshahr (1880s)
General information
Coordinates28°24′26.8″N 77°51′15.7″E

Construction

In 1878, Frederic Growse, a British civil servant of the Indian Civil Service, was appointed collector of the district of Bulandshahr.[1][2] He encouraged projects that involved the use of Indian craft work and was openly critical of the Public Works Department.[3]

Garden gate is one of several gates in Bulandshahr constructed with the encouragement and assistance of Growse.[4] It was built on the site of a former "filthy" drainage ravine[5] and is one of two gates to Moti Bagh, an 11-acre plot of land also known as the Bulandshahr public garden which houses the Town Hall, the other being on the east wall and named for Elliot Colvin.[1] Garden Gate is the main gate towards the west, and is named for Rao Umrao Singh, of Kuchesar, who donated 4,500 rupees towards its construction.[1]

Structure

It consists of an archway, which towards the road is made of white sandstone and is covered with fine tracery.[1] A wide open space was left to its front.[5] The two rooms flanking the archway are made of block-kankar and the corners of octagonal red brick turrets, topped by domed and pinnacled small pavilions 46 feet high and made of stone.[1][5] One of the rooms contains a spiral staircase.[5] The unroofed upper storey has successive arches to the front, in red brick, and is surmounted by a parapet of white stone posts and panels.[1] It is on the same level as the archway and turrets.[5] A pavilion over the archway was not constructed due to lack of funds.[5] The front facing the garden is much more plain.[5] The doors of the lodges are made from carved wood.[5]

Purpose

Two rooms on either side of the archway were intended for the watchman and gardener.[1] It is the main approach to the Town Hall.[5]

Response

Opposition to the gate was at first dismissed by the assistant judge, but the case lingered on for three years at a cost of nearly 10-times what Rao Umrao Singh paid for it.[6]

2023
  • Garden Gate 2023
    Garden Gate 2023
  • Garden Gate rear view
    Garden Gate rear view
  • Garden Gate inside arch
    Garden Gate inside arch
  • Garden Gate inside arch
    Garden Gate inside arch
  • Bulandhar Garden Gate side view
    Bulandhar Garden Gate side view
  • Garden Gate, Bulandshahr, care taker's room
    Garden Gate, Bulandshahr, care taker's room

See also

References
  1. Growse, Frederic Salmon (1884). "III. The rebuilding of Bulandshahr". Bulandshahr: Or, Sketches of an Indian District: Social, Historical and Architectural. Medical Hall Press. pp. 51–88. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  2. "Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in the New Buildings of Bulandshahr District, Part II · Highlights from the Digital Content Library". dcl.dash.umn.edu. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  3. Mayer, Roberta A.; Forest, Lockwood De (2010). Lockwood de Forest: Furnishing the Gilded Age with a Passion for India. Newark: Associated University Presse. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-87413-973-0. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  4. Tillotson, G. H. R. (Giles Henry Rupert) (1989). The tradition of Indian architecture : continuity, controversy, and change since 1850. New Haven : Yale University Press. pp. 84–92. ISBN 978-0-300-04636-6.
  5. Growse, Frederic Salmon (1885). Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in New Buildings in the Bulandshahr District. Allahabad: North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  6. "Miscellaneous". The London Quarterly & Holborn Review. London: Epworth Press. V: 192. 1886.

Further reading
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