Photos: Karachi’s Raj-era buildings crumble as city builds past heritage
Updated On Mar 03, 2018 09:24 AM IST
More than 70 years after the British left the Indian subcontinent cleaving into existence independent India and Pakistan, several architectural gems left behind in Karachi have been torn down and many are either crumbling or under threat from real estate developers in Pakistan's commercial capital which is mushrooming into a mega-city.
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Updated on Mar 03, 2018 09:24 AM IST
A residential building, built in the British colonial period, seen in Karachi, Pakistan. When British colonial rulers hastily left South Asia at Pakistan and India’s painful birth in 1947, the ensuing chaos and violence meant little attention was paid to the architecture they’d built or influenced in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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Updated on Mar 03, 2018 09:24 AM IST
A rickshaw moves past the Edulji Dinshaw Dispensary in Karachi. More than 70 years later, architectural gems have been torn down and many are either crumbling or under threat from real estate developers in Pakistan’s commercial capital which is mushrooming into a mega-city. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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Tuscan style pillars stand at the exterior of the Sindh Wildlife department building which was previously the Freemason Hall (Hope Lodge) in the British colonial period. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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The structures, weathered by the salty air, open the door to Karachi’s colonial scars, pointing out that many of the original owners were among millions of Muslim and Hindu refugees who fled their homes amid communal and religious violence that accompanied the end of British rule in India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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“Every brick of the heritage building narrates a story of those who left in 1947,” said Akthar Baloch, a researcher who has written several books on Karachi’s heritage. “They built them with love and affection. “When people like me feel bad looking at the neglect of these heritage sites, one wonders how the families of the owners must feel if they ever visit Karachi.” (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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Bamboo scaffolding is fixed to a colonial building. Karachi’s population has skyrocketed to nearly 17 million people in 2017 from an estimated 400,000 at independence, and every inch of the city has become a valuable commodity for developers building homes or drafting plans to alter the city’s skyline with skyscrapers. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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The Jahangir Kothari Parade promenade pictured here, once an imposing British heritage site, is now obscured by a maze of overpasses and the shadow of Pakistan’s tallest building. It is part of a handful of buildings, along with the Imperial Customs House, which have been restored to their former grandeur, but such projects are rare when focus is on tearing down old and building new. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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Rapid urbanisation has ensured large-scale destruction, particularly in the old city areas, where more profitable multi-story residential buildings have sprung up. In the new concrete, remnants of the colonial legacy can still be seen, often recognisable by their state of neglect. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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A staircase for emergency exit is seen on a building built in the British-era. The Saddar neighbourhood of Karachi has perhaps the largest concentration of British architectural history, while in the city’s eastern district, the iconic old colonial jail has been declared a heritage site by Sindh province’s antiquities department. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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A marble bust of Queen Victoria is displayed in the corridor of the Lady Dufferin Hospital with a wooden staircase in the background. So far more than 1,700 premises have been listed as heritage sites by the antiquities department and the process continues. (Akhtar Soomro / REUTERS)
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Updated on Mar 03, 2018 09:24 AM IST