Place · British signal tower · India
Flagstaff Tower, Delhi Ridge
The 1828 Flagstaff Tower on the Northern Delhi Ridge, built by the British as a signalling station overlooking the north of the city. The tower became the main British civilian refuge during the opening days of the 1857 uprising — British women, children and officers evacuated from the city gathered here on 11 May 1857 under threat from Delhi's rising sepoys, and were escorted north toward Karnal by Brigadier Harry Graves. The subsequent four-month British retreat up the Ridge produced the Delhi Field Force's recapture of the city on 14 September 1857. The tower survives on the Northern Ridge Forest in modern Delhi; the 1857 memorial plaque identifies it as the civilian evacuation point. Protected monument.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.680, 77.215
Connections (2)
- CampaignRed Fort, Delhi
The recapture of Delhi was organised from the Ridge camp above the city, and the object of it was the Red Fort. Between 8 June and 20 September 1857 the besiegers held the high ground and the rebels held the walls, and afterwards the population was expelled, the area between the fort and the Jama Masjid cleared, and the Ridge planted as a cantonment forest.
- Site withinDelhi
Flagstaff Tower, Delhi Ridge lies within Delhi — the two sites sit about 7 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Flagstaff Tower, Delhi Ridge 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, “Flagstaff Tower”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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