When the British came to rule over most of India in the 19th century, they rebuilt many Indian cities in their image. Drawing inspiration from both the existing Mughal architecture in India and the European architecture in England, the Indo-Saracenic revivalist architecture movement was an attempt at connecting the two distinct cultures. By the time the British left India in 1947, government offices, colleges, churches, courts, and other administrative, commercial, and residential buildings constructed in the Indo-Saracenic style in Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and New Delhi had become lasting symbols of British colonialism in India.
But what about the imperial core itself? Did India leave a similar mark on the architecture of England? Turns out, it did. While not as commonplace as in India, the Indo-Saracenic revivalist style inspired a not-insignificant number of colonial and post-colonial era buildings in the United Kingdom.
The best example of Indian-inspired architecture in the UK is, perhaps, the Sezincote House in Gloucestershire. The house was designed by English architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell and constructed in 1805. Sezincote is a remarkable example of Neo-Mughal architecture — a 19th-century reinterpretation of 16th and 17th-century Mughal architecture. Sezincote is dominated by its red sandstone colour, typical in traditional Mughal architecture, but features a copper-covered dome instead of the typical white marble. It was commissioned by Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, an officer of the East India Company, and later a politician.
Similarly, the Durbar Hall in Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, in East Sussex, was made in the image of a traditional Indian royal court. The Durbar Hall was constructed for the 1886 Colonial & Indian Exhibition in London and donated to the Hastings Museum in 1919 as part of the Brassey Collection. The Hall was the centrepiece of the Indian Court, a series of buildings designed and laid out like a traditional Indian palace. It was designed by Caspar Purdon Clarke and was built by Mohammed Baksh and Mohammed Juma.
A similar Durbar Room was constructed for Queen Victoria, the Empress of India, in the Osborne House — the royal couple's summer retreat on the Isle of Wight — in 1890. Designed by John Lockwood Kipling (father of the author Rudyard Kipling) in an elaborate and popular Indian style, the Durbar Room was built to provide a much-needed banqueting hall at the Osborne House. Learn more about The Durbar Room here.
British Royal's fascination with India went beyond Queen Victoria. The Brighton Dome (picture below) was originally built as a stable for George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. The Prince of Wales enjoyed riding, hunting and carriage driving, and decided that he needed a grand new stable block and riding house for his seaside pleasure palace, the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. In 1803, he commissioned architect William Porden, who had previously built a house on the Steine for Mrs Fitzherbert, the Prince’s longtime companion. The stable's exterior was inspired by an aquatint of the Jama Masjid in Delhi (also known as Masjid-I-Jahnuma), published between 1795–1807 by William and Thomas Daniell.
The Jama Masjid also inspired the first purpose-built mosque in the UK. The Shah Jahan Mosque (also known as Woking Mosque) on Oriental Road, Woking, England, was constructed in 1889 by Hungarian-British Orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. It was partly funded by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal, as a place for students at the Oriental Institute in Woking to worship. The mosque was designed by architect William Isaac Chambers (1847–1924) and built in Bath and Bargate stone. It was designed in a late Mughal style, and has a dome, minarets, and a courtyard.
Although the history Indian-style architecture in England spans from colonial-era whimsy to post-colonial expressions of cultural identity, today these structures stand as tangible reminders of Britain’s colonial past and multicultural present.
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