Asaf Ali Road runs along the southern edge of Old Delhi, and is in a way part of the transitional space between Old Delhi and the late-colonial architecture and urban space of Lutyens’ New Delhi to the south. From Old Delhi’s Delhi Gate all the way to Ajmeri Gate (with Turkman Gate in between), Asaf Ali Road is lined with modernist commercial and office buildings from the 1940s/50s all the way to the 1990s. These buildings occupy the space that once would have been the thick walls of Shahjahanabad. These modernist buildings are a relatively humble but representative collection of the type of modernisms that were employed by so many governmental commercial and office buildings around India through the decades.

The first iteration of this line of buildings was probably the two or three story high structures from around the 1940s, with colonnaded commercial space on the ground floor and either residences or office spaces above, a few examples of which still exist. After these came larger commercial buildings in later decades. The photos were taken in an east to west order, from Delhi Gate to Ajmeri Gate.

 

Location of Asaf Ali Road to the south of Old Delhi

 

Asaf Ali Road buildings along the edge of Old Delhi

 

 

A horrendous later example, probably from the 1990s

Typical 1970s/80s governmental commercial architecture

This is probably one of the original buildings on the line, from the 1940s/50s

Kamala Market near Ajmeri Gate, now in pretty dilapidated condition

A new building near the New Delhi Railway Station, seen from Kamala Market