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:
- Barrackpore was a well-known viceregal retreat
- Lutyens had personal connections to Bengal through family and official networks
- He inherited a bungalow tradition already shaped by Bengal experiences
Thus, the influence of Barrackpore is best understood as diffuse and inherited, rather than direct and intentional.
Architectural similarities
- Single-storey layouts with wide, colonnaded verandas for shade and airflow, elevated on plinths
- Stuccoed finishes, Tuscan/Palladian porticos overlooking gardens or rivers, and processional avenues linking to grander residences
- Park-like settings prioritising ventilation over ornament, rooted in early Calcutta cantonments
G.M. Kapur is the state convener of Intach in Calcutta