Barrackpore to Delhi: Exploring architectural echoes in New Delhi’s Lutyens bungalows
Telegraph | 31 March 2026
In November 2017, Martin Lutyens, chairman of the Lutyens
Trust from the UK, visited India, beginning his tour in Calcutta.
The Lutyens Trust seeks to promote the conservation and
sensitive stewardship of the architectural and planning legacy of Sir Edwin
Lutyens, with particular emphasis on Lutyens’ Delhi and comparable historic
precincts in Calcutta.
Its objectives include raising public awareness of early
20th-century architecture, urban design, and landscape planning through
outreach, walks, lectures, and exhibitions; supporting research and
documentation relating to Lutyens-era buildings and the wider imperial
architectural tradition; and advocating heritage-sensitive approaches to urban
development in dialogue with civic authorities and planners.
The Trust also places strong emphasis on education and
capacity building in architectural conservation and urban design, while
highlighting the importance of historic gardens, avenues, vistas, and open
spaces as integral elements of Lutyens’ planning philosophy — concerns that
resonate strongly in both Delhi and Calcutta today.
In Calcutta, the Raj Bhavan held a special interest for
members of the Lutyens Trust, as it was the residence of Sir Edwin Lutyens’
father-in-law, the 1st Earl of Lytton, and later his brother-in-law, the 2nd
Earl of Lytton, during their respective tenures as Viceroy and Governor of
Bengal.
It is also known that Sir Edwin himself visited the building
during his brother-in-law’s term. Of particular importance was Flagstaff House,
which, as Martin Lutyens noted, was believed to have been a key source of
inspiration for the design of the iconic New Delhi bungalows, making it a site
of exceptional relevance to the Trust’s ongoing research into Lutyens’
architectural legacy.
To quote from architectural historian Peter Verity’s account
of the Trust’s tour: “It revealed how the layout of the military and civil
structure, organisational hierarchies and contemporary influences determined
the form and architecture of New Delhi. There were some key sites we visited on
the way, starting with Barrackpore (a name possibly derived from the English
word barracks).”
It was perhaps appropriate in our search for Lutyens’ Indian
path towards the planning and design of New Delhi that we begin our journey at
Barrackpore on the banks of the Hooghly River, 15 miles north of the centre of
Calcutta, which remained the symbolic seat of military power in the country
until New Delhi became the capital.
Barrackpore was one of the earliest military cantonments
established by the East India Company in the 1770s and became, in its
organisation, the model for the cantonments that followed.
Of the original staff bungalows, possibly the most
significant is Flagstaff House, the residence of the Governor’s private
secretary and later commander-in-chief. This is a simple stuccoed Palladian
bungalow embellished by a Tuscan entrance portico with a second portico in the
form of a projecting loggia on the garden front, overlooking the river. We
understand that this may have acted as a model for the Lutyens-designed staff
bungalows in New Delhi.
Flagstaff House in Barrackpore, built around 1863 as the
residence of the governor-general’s private secretary (later the British
commander-in-chief), exemplifies mid-19th-century Anglo-Indian bungalow design
with its single-storey structure, wide verandas, and simple colonial layout.
Early New Delhi staff bungalows, designed by Lutyens around 1917 near Viceroy’s
House, adopted similar low-profile, white-stuccoed forms with colonnaded
verandas and attic ventilators for the tropical climate.
Lutyens incorporated elements of Indian architecture into
his neoclassical style for New Delhi’s bungalows, such as white stucco
finishes, columns, and attic windows for ventilation, evolving from
19th-century Anglo-Indian precedents. His 1917 prototypes aimed for stone
construction but were adapted due to cost, influencing staff bungalows near
Viceroy’s House. These shared traits with earlier British colonial housing but
emphasised hierarchy and imperial grandeur.
The concept of the “bungalow” itself originated in Bengal
(including areas like Barrackpore), and this general typology influenced
British colonial housing across India. However, that influence came through the
evolution of the bungalow as a building type, not through a specific borrowing
by Lutyens from Barrackpore.
Key similarities
Both structures reflect evolved Anglo-Indian precedents from
early 19th-century Calcutta cantonments, prioritising shaded verandas, elevated
floors for airflow, and hierarchical layouts amid green estates.
Flagstaff House’s proximity to Barrackpore’s Government
House (1813), with its Tuscan portico and colonnaded sides overlooking the
river, mirrors the processional, park-like settings Lutyens used for Delhi’s
bungalows.
While no direct records confirm Lutyens drawing specific
inspiration from Flagstaff House during these stays, architectural analyses
note strong visual parallels between it and Lutyens’ 1917 staff bungalow
prototypes in New Delhi, suggesting influence within shared Anglo-Indian
traditions.
Lutyens’ notebooks from Delhi planning highlight
Anglo-Indian precedents like Calcutta cantonments for bungalow forms (verandas,
stucco), which align with Barrackpore’s style, but these are general rather
than site-specific. This is an inferred influence via family ties and visual
precedents, as confirmed by architectural historians like Peter Verity, who
link Barrackpore to Lutyens’ path.
Was Lutyens directly inspired by Barrackpore?
No surviving correspondence, drawings, or notes by Lutyens
explicitly reference Barrackpore bungalows as a design source. However,
circumstantial evidence suggests familiarity:
Thus, the influence of Barrackpore is best understood as
diffuse and inherited, rather than direct and intentional.
Architectural similarities
G.M. Kapur is the state convener of Intach in Calcutta