The Delhi Town Hall is a landmark building, at

Chandni Chowk The Chandni Chowk, also known as Moonlight Square is one of the oldest and busiest markets in Old Delhi, India. It is located close to the Old Delhi Railway Station. The Red Fort monument is located at the eastern end of Chandni Chowk. It was bu ...

Old Delhi Old Delhi or Purani Dilli is an area in the Central Delhi district of Delhi, India. It was founded as a walled city named Shahjahanabad in 1648, when Shah Jahan (the Mughal emperor at the time) decided to shift the Mughal capital from Agra. Th ...

. It was the seat of the

Municipal Corporation of Delhi Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is the municipal corporation that governs most of Delhi, India. The MCD is among the largest municipal bodies in the world providing civic services to an estimated population of more than 11 million citiz ...

(MCD) from 1866 during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

till late 2009, when offices shifted to the new MCD Civic Centre on Minto Road in

Central Delhi Central Delhi is an administrative district of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in India. It is bounded by the Yamuna River on the east and by the districts of North Delhi to the north, West Delhi and South West Delhi to the west, New De ...

formally inaugurated in 2010.

History

The construction of the building started in 1860 and was completed in 1863. It is constructed out of yellow-painted brick and stone and carved white stone trim. It was initially known as Lawrence Institute and housed Delhi College of Higher Studies before it was bought by the municipality for in 1866. Besides government offices, the building also had a library and a European club. Originally a bronze statue of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

stood in front of the hall. After independence in 1947, it was replaced with a statue of the Arya Samaj leader

Swami Shraddhanand Swami Shraddhanand (22 February 1856 – 23 December 1926), also known as Mahatma Munshi Ram Vij, was an Arya Samaj sannyasi and an Indian Independence activist who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati. This included the establishment ...

. The original statue now stand in

Delhi College of Art College of Art, New Delhi, established in 1942 under the arts department of the Delhi College of Engineering now the Delhi Technological University (DTU), is an art college for advanced training in Visual Art. It is run by the Government of ...

premises. The location is officially termed

Ghantaghar Ghantaghar (literally clock-tower) is a location in the center of Chandni Chowk, Delhi, where an iconic clock tower, termed Northbrook Clocktower during early 20th century, stood. The clock tower was built in 1870 and stood there until its partia ...

after a clock tower that once stood here.

References

External links

History of Delhi Government buildings in Delhi Government buildings completed in 1863 City and town halls in India 1863 establishments in India Local government in Delhi {{India-struct-stub

History

References

Further reading

External links