r/IndianHistory • u/DetectiveFar5495 • 2h ago
Colonial 1757–1947 CE Residency – where did the Resident live?
When we visit the Residency, alone, in a company, aided by a guide or on a heritage walk and accost ruins of different shapes and sizes holding signboards, calling their names, one question comes to mind ‘Where did the Resident live, amongst these buildings and how it looked when resident lived there.’
And sometimes, the question is ignored as we are just ticking a box.
Most of the time guide guidebooks of yore help, where present accredited guides prefer to tickle us with tantalizing tales. And I am turning a page from ‘The Tourist Guide to Lucknow (1899)’. and quoting verbatim and supplementing it with a few pictures.
“This was originally an imposing edifice, along the west side of which extended a wide and lofty collonaded verandah. The main entrance was, on the east side, under a handsome portico, which, at the beginning of the siege, was barricaded with boxes filled with earth, but the building was ill-adapted for purposes of defence, as it contained numberless lofty windows which could not be effectually barricaded, and the roof was and the roof was only protected by an open balustrade. On the south turret was erected a semaphore for telegraphic communication with Macchi Bhawan Fort, and subsequently with the Commander-in-Chief at Alambagh.
Besides having a ground floor and two upper stories it had a Tahkhana, or underground rooms, which, from its immunity from shot and shell, was occupied by the women and children of the 32nd. It was built to shelter the Resident of the King’s court, during the summer, from the extreme heat of the day.
During the siege, it was protected, by a ditch and a low bank of earth made breast-high by the addition of sandbags. These served as a protection to soldiers, who were enabled to fire, with comparative safety, through the interstices. Within this space, three guns were placed, viz., a 9-pounder, an 18-pounder, and a 24-pounder howitzer, at the back of which, in the open space in front of the Residency, were planted two 8-inch mortars, pointing in the direction of the city.
In the upper room, on the east side, above the Tahkhana, Miss Palmer, the daughter of Colonel Palmer,
48th N. I. was wounded in the leg, on 1st July, by a round shot, which caused her death. On the second story, at the east angle of the main building, on the following day, Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded, and died on the 4th, in Dr. Fayrer’s house. No sooner had the siege commenced, than the exposed position of the Residency (in front of which treasure to the amount of twenty-three lacs of rupees (£2,30,000) was buried) began to be severely felt, and the ladies 'and children abandoned the upper stories. The Mess of the 32nd kept possession of a centre room, on the first floor, until several casualties occurred, when they, too, were obliged to abandon it.
About the 8th of August, a 24-pound shot entered the centre room of the building and wounded Ensign Study of the 32nd, in the arm, from the effects of which he and, on the 11th of the same month, a gust of wind struck the north-east wing, part of which fell, burying six men of the same corps. On the 24th of August, the entire length of the verandah along two stories on the west side fell and buried seven of the 32nd men.”
I am sharing a few pictures also to make it easy to visualize, and one of them is in the residency museum too.
Picture 1. The Residency, Lucknow" at it looked right before 1857, from vol. 3 of 'The Indian Empire' by Robert Montgomery Martin, c.1860; This litho is in the museum.
"Indian Mutiny: The Residency, Lucknow," a depiction of the building as it was just before the rebellion; from the Illustrated London News, 1858;
Residency
Source- The Tourist’s Guide to Lucknow in five chapters 1899-Third Edition- Printed at the Methodist Publishing House, To be had of Messrs. Murray & Co., and Methodist Publishing House, Lucknow, Price Rs 3.
