Lucknow: When You Get There

The nice thing about the modern rulers, be it British, or local administration, is that while constructing any modern edifice, they made sure to maintain the harmony between the old Nawabi architecture, and their new one.

Take a look at this gorgeous Railway Station building structure in a larger photograph. Any visitor is awestruck with its grandeur the moment s/he steps in the place.



Lucknow's Charbagh Railway Station, till 1867, was a combination of four large orchards. The present Station building was constructed in 1926 with domes and minars of Saracan design, intended to harmonize with the architecture peculiar to the important historical buildings to the city which date to the days of the Nawabs of Awadh.

The building constructed in red brick has a frontage of long verandahs adorned with Mughal arches. A central portico leads to spacious loggia, on both side of which on two floors are administrative offices. refreshment rooms, waiting halls and retiring rooms. Constructed along the length of station, and approached by over-bridge and sub-ways are a number of platforms running into enormous lengths of receiving incoming and outgoing traffic.

Just adjacent to this old building, there also is a newer building catering to North Eastern Railway with similar architecture. Even the new reservation center also has the Nawabi touch. The platform ones is the third longest in the world after Kahdakpur and Sonpur. There are a whopping thirteen of them in total. The building now is a part of World Heritage Site.

The Amritsar station in Sunny Deol's Gadar is in fact Charbagh station rather. Bunty and Bubbly also gives a peek in, and so does the umpteenth number of Lucknow based movies set in fifties, sixties and seventies.

Whenever you visit, do spare a moment or two to marvel this magnificent edifice.