Municipal museum planned at Town Hall in need of new address

Delhi Tourism has proposed redeveloping the Town Hall complex under the Union government’s National Mission for Developing Fifty Globally Competitive Tourism Destinations scheme, prompting the MCD to reconsider the location of the proposed museum

Two years after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) proposed the city’s first municipal museum at the old Town Hall in Chandni Chowk, the civic body is now looking for a new home for its artefacts, maps and archival records after the heritage complex was folded into a larger tourism redevelopment project led by the Delhi Tourism department.

One wing of the complex, the press building, was supposed to house the municipal museum. But now, the MCD is considering housing the municipal artefacts at the Lahori Gate haveli museum. (HT Archive)

Delhi Tourism has proposed redeveloping the Town Hall complex under the Union government’s National Mission for Developing Fifty Globally Competitive Tourism Destinations scheme, prompting the MCD to reconsider the location of the proposed museum.

A senior municipal official, requesting anonymity, said the MCD had earlier engaged the Aga Khan Foundation for the survey and restoration of the Town Hall complex. “One wing of the complex, the press building, was supposed to house the municipal museum. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) is restoring the artefacts and designing the galleries that were meant to display them. Now that Delhi Tourism is taking up the redevelopment project, the press building is also being transferred. We are now considering housing the municipal artefacts at the Lahori Gate haveli museum, a project being developed with IGNCA,” the official said.

A second official said the memorandum of understanding with IGNCA, for the Lahori Gate haveli museum project, is in its final stages. “The haveli has already been restored and IGNCA will curate galleries there. We also plan to operate a café and cultural space for public events and gatherings. A section of the museum will be dedicated to the municipality’s history and archival material,” the official said.

The official added that the initial costs will be borne by IGNCA and that a revenue-sharing mechanism may be worked out after four or five years, depending on the project’s performance.

Chief minister Rekha Gupta, in her budget speech in March, had announced plans to redevelop the Town Hall complex into a “global heritage centre” showcasing Delhi’s art, culture and cuisine.

The 160-year-old Grade-I heritage structure served as the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from 1866 to 2012 and remains a key landmark in the Walled City, and a symbol of Delhi’s architectural, administrative and cultural legacy. However, large parts of the complex have remained vacant and underutilised since 2012, after the civic body shifted its headquarters to the Civic Centre.

In 2024, MCD signed a memorandum of understanding with IGNCA for restoration of artefacts and rare documents that have remained in the civic body’s possession for over 160 years. Over the last two years, IGNCA has restored several archival materials, including the Wilson Survey of Shahjahanabad, documents related to civic receptions hosted at Town Hall for visiting world leaders, old photographs and abhinandpatras.