Along with Paharganj and Sadar Bazaar, the Sabzi Mandi area outside the walled city of Shahjahanabad had become urbanized by the early 20th c. Sabzi Mandi was to the north west of Shahjahanabad, on the main Grand Trunk Road that connected Delhi to Lahore. During the 1910s and 20s when schemes were being prepared for planned development in areas like Paharganj, Sadar Bazaar and Karol Bagh, the Sabzi Mandi area and the area immediately to the north west of it, which also lay along GT Road, were also included for development.

I explored the building stock from the 1940s and 50s in some parts of this area north-west of Sabzi Mandi, specifically Jawahar Nagar, Kamla Nagar and Roop Nagar (as they were later named). Roop Nagar had more modernist residences from around the 1960s. That there is so much more to explore in Delhi is made clear when we look at the satellite image of this area. Shakti Nagar, adjacent to the neighborhoods I’ve mentioned above, would be an ideal place to continue these explorations. Delhi seems to have such a wealth of desi deco and “proto-modernist” architecture from the 1930s to 50s, as well as more modernist architecture from the 1960s and 70s, which could all soon disappear.

This post has photos from Jawahar Nagar, which has a mix of commercial and residential areas.

For some more background information and a location map, go to the introduction of this series of posts.

Jawahar Nagar: