In Memory of Deans Hotel Peshawar

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In memory of Dean's hotel

As I started planning a trip to Peshawar after an absence of more than twenty years, one of the chief pleasures I was looking forward to staying in one of Deans Hotel�s delightful, old garden suites, each with an ample bathroom, bedroom, large living room with fireplace, and covered verandah.

I consider this magnificent, understated, superbly elegant old hotel quite simply the finest hotel I�ve ever been in, an extremely successful architectural synthesis of the British and Peshawar spirits, and thus a tangible, visual sign of that meeting of minds, of that cultural synthesis, between Pathans and British which took place to the benefits of both sides, and which is also memorialised, but not as effectively, by the inscription at Jamrud�s Bab-e-Khyber, which reads in part, if I am not mistaken, �The two great peoples looked each other in the eye.�

It was with disbelief, shock, and finally, enormous sadness and grief, that I learned that Deans Hotel is no more: the place where one could feel and breathe the presence and the spirit of Kipling, Roos-Keppel, Sir Olaf Caroe, King Nadir Shah and his brothers arriving to rescue Afghanistan in 1929, and countless others, including the Afghan and Afridi tribal leaders who met me there half-clandestinely in January 1979, as I started investigating the Soviet-Afghan war with the object of writing an academic thesis. One of them specifically mentioned that this was where Nadir Shah had stayed, and begun the march on Kabul.

I can only hope that this catastrophe will serve as a sad object lesson and contribute to the survival of the remaining Peshawar landmarks--I�m thinking especially of the Peshawar Club with its huge, magnificent trees, and of Khyber House, residence of the PA Khyber. Of course there are many others.

The Sikhs burned and destroyed Peshawar�s beautiful gardens 170 years ago, but at least they were enemies and invaders; how sad that it should be native myopia and greed to wreak havoc now! As the Romans said of the Barberini popes, who in the 17th century dismantled the Coliseum and other ancient Roman buildings to build their own palaces, Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Baberini! What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini are doing!

I�d like to take this opportunity for expressing my deep appreciation for the delightful hospitality which I received from all in Peshawar. The city and its people have occupied a very special spot in my heart ever since.

CARLO CRISTOFORI,

Italy

"Peshawar 1966"

Read article by Adil Zareef about Dean's Hotel