Grande Dame Of The East

As soon as you hit the driveway of The Imperial, New Delhi, time becomes non-linear. Moustachioed guards in red turbans and cummerbunds hold the door open for you. The air changes almost imperceptibly when you step through the doors into the grand lobby. There are the paintings on the wall, the marble colonnades, the Art Deco design, and the most significant ornament of all: the history.

It is 1936. The Imperial has arrived in a city still finding its identity as the new capital of British India. The story begins with Sardar Bahadur Ranjit Singh, son of Rai Bahadur Sardar Narain Singh, who had helped organise the grand Delhi Durbar of 1911. He commissioned architect F B Blomfield, an associate of Edwin Lutyens, to blend Victorian, colonial and Art Deco influences into a distinctly modern design.

As historian Swapna Liddle, author of "Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi," explained, “The Imperial's design was a departure from the British Colonial design of Connaught Place. It was also not seeking to go back to the self-consciously Indianised style of New Delhi’s government buildings. Instead it embraced a forward-looking modernity that reflected the nation’s march towards independence.”

A Witness To India’s Modern History

It would be 11 years after the hotel’s opening that India would become independent. And in those precarious years, its rooms and bedecked interiors became unlikely witnesses to the conversations that would shape the subcontinent. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Lord Mountbatten ironed out the path to India’s independence here, settling discussions around Partition in the Royal Ballroom. Nehru and Jinnah also held press briefings in the lobby as the country approached the midnight hour.

Amidst the blue pillars framing the verandah of the hotel’s 1911 restaurant, named after the year Delhi was declared the capital of British India, a white marble-topped table, supported by an intricate wrought-iron base, still stands. Known as the Gandhi Table, this is where Nehru and Jinnah met and negotiated the country’s future as the hotel’s polished interiors formed the backdrop to a political order teetering on the brink of a new shift.

The History Of Art

The Imperial's collection of more than 5,500 artworks gives these histories a tangible presence. Corridors are lined with original prints, lithographs and paintings depicting India's cities, princely courts and colonial-era landscapes. Life-size oil portraits of Indian rulers stand outside the ballroom, while a monumental painting of the Delhi Durbar recall the pageantry of a departing empire. Yet The Imperial is more than a museum of colonial life. Its Art Deco lines, polished Burma teak, Italian marble and Persian carpets speak to a particular moment of architectural ambition, while its galleries and original furnishings have been carefully maintained. Liddle considers the hotel an important example of how heritage buildings can be sensitively restored and upgraded, offering an alternative to demolition or the creation of superficial, faux-historic spaces.

That balance between preservation and reinvention continues in the hotel’s social life. At the Patiala Peg bar, where political figures once gathered, conversations now unfold over cocktails. The Spice Route’s intricate murals and woodwork, the genius of designer Rajeev Sethi, evoke centuries of cultural exchange across Asia, while its menu carries that journey into the present. Outside, Janpath, the erstwhile Queensway, moves to the pace of contemporary Delhi. Inside, the past is neither sealed away nor entirely resolved. The Imperial preserves the memory of British rule, but its story belongs just as much to the India that emerged from it: modern, complex and still reconciling its relationship with history. Its greatest achievement may be that it allows both worlds to coexist, without pretending they are one and the same.

The Information

• Address: Janpath Ln, Janpath, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001

• Keys: 235 bespoke rooms and suites

• Connectivity: Located on Janpath in Connaught Place, approx 19 km from Indira Gandhi International Airport and about 3 km from the New Delhi Railway Station

• Website: theimperialindia.com