हिंदीOn this day
Ruined

The Residency, Lucknow

The compound of the British Resident at Lucknow, where the British garrison was besieged by the forces of Awadh from 30 June to November 1857. Its shot-scarred ruins have been kept as they were left.

Built: 1780–1800, under the Nawabs of Awadh, for the British ResidentWhere: Uttar Pradesh26.86° N, 80.93° E
  1. 1780–1800
  2. February 1856
  3. 30 June 1857
  4. November 1857
  5. March 1858
Photo: TuckDB Postcards · CC BY 4.0

01Awadh annexed

The Residency was built for the Company’s agent at the Awadh court in the last decades of the 18th century, on a rise near the Gomti. In February 1856 Dalhousie annexed Awadh and sent Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta. The annexation touched every sepoy’s village, since much of the Bengal army was recruited in Awadh. When the rising came, Begum Hazrat Mahal, one of Wajid Ali Shah’s wives, proclaimed her young son Birjis Qadr ruler, and the taluqdars and sepoys gathered round her.

02The siege

After his defeat at Chinhat on 30 June 1857, Sir Henry Lawrence fell back into the Residency with the garrison, loyal sepoys and many civilians. He was mortally wounded by a shell on 2 July and died on 4 July. Havelock and Outram broke in on 25 September but could not break out, and the siege went on until Sir Colin Campbell’s column reached the compound in November and evacuated it. Lucknow itself was retaken only in March 1858, after hard street fighting. The British kept the ruined buildings as a memorial and flew their flag over them day and night until August 1947. The Archaeological Survey of India now looks after the site and its museum.

The life of this place

  1. 1780–1800The Residency buildings are raised.
  2. February 1856The Company annexes Awadh.
  3. 30 June 1857After Chinhat the siege of the Residency begins.
  4. November 1857Colin Campbell relieves and evacuates the Residency.
  5. March 1858Lucknow is retaken by the British.

Nearby

Mankameshwar Temple, LucknowStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Mankameshwar Temple, Lucknow

The oldest Shiva temple of Lucknow, on the bank of the Gomti, which Lucknow holds was founded by Lakshmana, after whom the city was once called Lakshmanpur. Its Sawan Mondays bring queues down to the river.

KakoriStanding
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Kakori

The town near Lucknow where, on 9 August 1925, revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republican Association stopped a train and took the government treasury it carried. Four of them, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh, were hanged for it in December 1927.

Chandrika Devi Temple, LucknowStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Chandrika Devi Temple, Lucknow

A Devi temple on the bank of the Gomti at Bakshi Ka Talab, north of Lucknow, where the Devi is held to have appeared in the hollow of an old neem tree. The new-moon nights and Navratri bring the city out to her.

NaimisharanyaStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Naimisharanya

The forest on the Gomti where Suta told the Puranas and the Mahabharata to Shaunaka and the assembled rishis. Without Naimisharanya, the Puranas say, there would be no Puranas to read.