An Important Acquisition

by Paul Waite

The Lutyens Trust recently had an opportunity to obtain copies of “The Delhi Town Planning Committee Reports” on the choice of a site for the New Imperial Capital of India and the Trustees agreed the purchase. The First Report outlines the possibilities, the Second Report focuses on the North Site with a Medical Report, and the Final Report details the selected site. They were printed in 1913 by His Majesty’s Stationery Office in East India and presented to both Houses of Parliament in Britain. Written by G.S.C. Swinton, John A. Brodie and Sir Edwin Lutyens with six large fold-out maps of Delhi and vicinity, they will make a valuable addition to the Trust’s library and may feature in the exhibition on Sir Edwin planned to place at the British Council in New Delhi in 2007. The maps detail the physical features and land acquisition proposals, with superimposed plans of new streets, the later ones showing sewers and water supply, so are extremely useful in showing the ideas behind the development of the plan of the city.

Paul Waite