Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi

Swapna Liddle's latest book 'Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi' has been released in 2018 a year after her book on 'Chandni Chowk : The Mughal City of Old Delhi'. Both these books must be bought together as they are related to her PhD thesis on Shahjahanabad, its cultural and intellectual life in the nineteenth century. Though, her first book was a delight to read this one is no less. However, she has been very succinct in describing New Delhi especially Connaught place of today. She has mentioned many of its famous restaurants like Wenger and Co. in chapter 9 'Connaught Place: Life of the City', page 108, which will elicit interest in those readers who still visit the place for buying pastries and delicious savory chicken sandwiches etc.. A great read to understand how the inner and outer circle of the great shopping center Connaught place was built, developed and thrived over the years to become one of the most central, prominent and prime places to work, shop, eat, drink and relax for the many inhabitants of the city.

This book overviews the development of the central part of Delhi vis-a-vis the development carried out in The capital city itself. The account of the same is chronologically stated to the extent that anyone who is not from Delhi shall easily understand the greatness that is Connaught place. Recommended for those who are interested in how cities are made to the grandeur that they are.

It is a short glimpse into the long history of the formulation of the new capital.One criticism- since it isn't written by an architect, it does have very less details about the structure of Connaught place itselfOverall a very interesting read and research welldone!

I love my dilli. Been brought up here and explored it all over i realised how less i know after reading this book evry thing makes so much sense and am able to appreciate little little finer details of this beautifully created city which we tend to overlook in the city. Like to make people remember roads as no g maps in those daYs botanists and horticulture scientists were called to create a botanical footprint so that no two streets have same trees so akbar road has neem trees only. Do give it a read, this book shud be famous

I felt that the book was more focused on the professional lives of the architects of Lutyens Delhi. I don't wish to know the gossip among architects who were building New Delhi. Very less facts about Delhi.

If you love Delhi you are bound to fall in love with this book. Interspersed liberally with gems of information, it nevertheless reads like an unputdownable story, veiling the immense research that has gone into it. Thumbs up to a great effort.

A very well written and informative book.

Amazing