Shop fronts, Shimla, India

Shop fronts, Shimla

Nineteenth century

The Mall, Shimla

Another View

Willow Bank Bakers (established 1876), Shimla

Photograph, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee

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The Mall is the main street of Shimla, curving up into town from Cart Road in the east, and running on downhill to just below and beyond the Institute of Advanced Studies (once the Viceregal Lodge) in the west. The main part of it lies below the Ridge in the middle. This has always been the heart of Shimla's social life. As the Heritage Board there explains, "the core is a row of shops likened to an English 'home counties' small-town marketplace. Elements of Tudor framing, a varied roofline, assorted columns and decorations have given this row considerable character." The Board directs visitors to look at the different types of windows, including bays, diamond cut and decoratively barred panes; the Mughal-inspired cupolas; and other decorative embellishments. Notice also the red corrugated iron roofs, common in Shimla, and practical, but very noisy in the rain. This is more visible in the single-storey, gabled Willow Bank Bakers, further east along the Mall (here shown shuttered; there was a commotion there recently during a Bollywood filming). Like many of the larger buildings in Shimla, these shop fronts present a mixture of styles, but criticisms of this mixture have faded, to be replaced in recent years by affection, — and the drive to conserve what is now seen as a unique colonial heritage.

Source

Heritage Board in the Mall, Shimla.

Last modified 20 March 2008