RESTORATION
OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS
The main
campus of the University of Delhi was established during
the 1930s and 1940s, on the northwestern slope of the
Northern Ridge adjacent to the camp set up for the
entourage of the King Emperor during the Delhi Durbar. The
area had several structures raised by the British, some
immediately before and several others after the siege of
Delhi in 1857.
The most
magnificent among the surviving buildings is the Old Vice
Regal Lodge. It now houses the offices of the Vice
Chancellor and other senior officers of the University,
and also its Council Halls. The building started life as a
Forest Inspection Bungalow in the late 1860s. It was made
a Circuit House during the 1870s. At the turn of the
century it became the residence of the Viceroy in his
annual journeys between Calcutta and Simla. When the
capital moved to Delhi in 1911, the building became the
permanent residence of the Viceroy who lived in it through
the years of the Great War and for almost a decade
thereafter, till his new residence designed by Lutyens on
Raisina hill, some miles to the south, was ready. The
underground cellar of the building was used as a makeshift
prison for Bhagat Singh, the great revolutionary. The
present office of the Registrar of the University is the
room in which Lord Mountbatten proposed marriage to
Edwina. The building was handed over to the University in
1933. Over the decades, the building suffered major
structural and other damage. Several alterations were
made, mostly to create more space to accommodate the
growing demands of a fast expanding institution. In the
year 2000, the building was a pale shadow of its glorious
past.
The Urban
Heritage Foundation, Delhi, provided a generous
grant-in-aid of Rupees 3.5 crore for the restoration of
the building. The architect was selected through a
competition judged by a distinguished jury. Restoration
involved undoing the alterations made to the building over
the years and restoring the original layout. During
repairs, care was taken to retain the original components
of the building, be it woodwork or marble. The old
Ballroom, which had for some time been used as the
University Library, and which later became a dump for old
furniture has now been restored and made into a
state-of-the-art convention centre, centrally
air-conditioned and equipped with sound proof partitions
which allow for its use either as a large convocation hall
or as three separate conference rooms. An exhibition area
has also been developed. The greatest challenge in this
task was how to restore the original grandeur of the
building, while ensuring that the interiors are
appropriately functional for use as modern offices. The
Jawahar Vatika and the lawns surrounding the building have
also been redesigned and re-landscaped in a manner that
they blend harmoniously with the restored building and its
ambience.
The restoration of the old Vice Regal Lodge was the first
step in an ambitious, yet necessary, endeavor to restore
heritage buildings in the University Campus. The
Government of Delhi was most generous in setting aside
Rupees 25 crore during the period of the Tenth Five Year
Plan for the restoration of heritage buildings at the
University of Delhi and its colleges. The Faculty of Arts
and Gwyer Hall, designed by one of Lutyens'
contemporaries, Walter George, were in a state of
disrepair and needed urgent restoration. The restoration
of these buildings has followed the restoration of the old
Vice Regal Lodge. The financial support from the
Government of Delhi has also been used for the restoration
of Indraprastha College (which was the office of the
Commander-in-Chief until the mid 1930s), St. Stephen's
College and Miranda House (the architect for both of which
was Walter George). Subsequently, the restoration work
moved on to include the Physics and Chemistry blocks in
the Faculty of Science and also the Central Institute of
Education.