Place · circular commercial centre · India
Connaught Place
The circular colonnaded commercial centre at the heart of New Delhi, designed by Robert Tor Russell in 1933 and named for the Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria's third son) — the planned commercial counterpart to Lutyens' government quarter and Baker's Parliament. The Georgian neoclassical facades with their cream stucco colonnades around three concentric circuses (Inner, Middle and Outer) remain Delhi's most recognisable 20th-century urban space. Renamed Rajiv Chowk (Inner) and Indira Chowk (Outer) in 1995. The 1950s New Market quarter and the 1970s Palika Bazaar underground arcade expanded the retail function. CP is a protected heritage zone under INTACH listing 2009 and remains the symbolic civic centre of postcolonial Delhi — site of major protests, celebrations and public gatherings.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.631, 77.217
Connections (2)
- Site adjacencySt James Church, Delhi
St James's Church of 1836 and Connaught Place of 1933 are two and a half kilometres and a century apart, and they mark the two British Delhis. The first belongs to the civil lines beyond Kashmere Gate, which 1857 destroyed; the second to the new capital built well to the south, deliberately away from the old city and its memory.
- Site withinDelhi
Connaught Place lies within Delhi — the two sites sit about 2 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Connaught Place is one of the specific sites that give Delhi its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Connaught Place”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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