By Majid Sheikh

Dawn Sep 27, 2020

Among the numerous colonial era structures on The Mall, none is as old as Tollinton Market, which was built primarily by the British rulers to exhibit their industrial prowess. That very first exhibition was called the Great Punjab Exhibition of 1864.

How did this come about, and who was Tollinton? What was the ‘great’ exhibition all about, and what did this building, quaintly British in a way, lead to? A bit of history is very much needed here. In 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War a treaty of Lahore was signed on 9th of March, 1846, a small East India Company Army garrison was stationed in the Old Anarkali area. This was the first British cantonment of Lahore. Amazingly, 47 years earlier this was the very place where Maharajah Ranjit Singh had stationed his army before attacking and conquering Lahore.

The numerous buildings in this area served as offices of this first British Army of occupation. After the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1849, in which, like the first war, most Sikh army generals deserted or turned informers, the Lahore Darbar collapsed and the East India Company took over control. All along the crowded bazaar of Old Anarkali the new cantonment flourished. It was in such circumstances that a cholera epidemic broke out, claiming, according to EIC manuscripts, almost 10 per cent of their staff.

In such circumstances, the commander-in-chief of the EIC Army, Sir Charles Napier, set off to find a new cantonment location far away from civilians. As he set off with a companion on his horse, he stopped at the shrine of Mian Mir (one account states that he mysteriously fell off his horse) and immediately named the new location as the Mian Mir Cantonment. He rode across the fields and stopped at a ‘katcha’ crossroad and declared that the first church would be built at that spot.

So it was that The Mall of Lahore came about with every labourer of Lahore forced to work free on the road one day of the week. From the old Lahore horse-carriage station (now the gymnasium of GC Lahore), the road twisted towards the Anarkali Cantonment and then headed towards the Mian Mir location, which itself stretched from the Saddar Bazaar area (on the Grand Trunk Road from Amritsar) to the edges of Walton Bazaar, later renamed Royal Artillery (RA) Bazaar. By then the events of 1857 took over, after which it was decided to immediately work on two projects. The first was a fortress-like railway station and the second an exhibition hall to show the people of the Punjab the “Grandeur of the British Empire”. The message from Queen Victoria was to “portray the strength, modernity and prowess of the British Empire”.

The railway station was the very first colonial era building to be started in 1858 with a design more like an ancient fort with thick walls, turrets and firing holes for cannon fire. The events of 1857 influenced the design, and was completed in 1860. The next building was an exhibition hall very much replicating the Great London Exposition of 1862, which had many such halls. In 1862 the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Trade of London put up 28,000 exhibitors from 36 countries. In its day it stunned the world. Queen Victoria ordered that the Punjab must also be shown the greatness of her rule. It was a top priority royal command.

So at the edge of the Old Anarkali Cantonment facing the under construction Mall and the ancient route of Anarkali Bazaar work started. It was part of the garden of the ‘baradari’ of Wazir Khan. No other colonial structure existed then on this new road. The design of the hall was copied from one of the structures in South Kensington that was used in the 1862 Exposition. At that place now exists London’s Natural History Museum. The design by Captain Francis Fowkes of the Royal Engineers was used by the engineering corps of Lahore.

Many myths exist about Ganga Ram or Bhai Ram Singh being the architects. This is just not possible. Ganga Ram was born in 1851 and by the time Tollinton Market work started in 1862, he was only 11 years old. About Bhai Ram Singh he was born in 1858 and was a mere five years old when Tollinton Market came about.

So we know from archives now in the London Museum Library, that the design was based on that of Captain Francis Fowkes, which the newly-appointed Assistant Commissioner (AC) of Lahore, Henry Phillips Tollinton, led a team of designers and carpenters to finalise the Fowkes plans. A bit about Tollinton since no one seems to know much about him.

Tollinton was born in Leicester and came to India in December 1857 and took part in the ending operations of the Uprising. He did his BA from Balliol College, Oxford. Being an ICS officer he was immediately made the AC of Lahore and worked in the Revenue Department, which in those days was also tasked with raising funds for the new exposition hall. His leadership led the hall to be finished in record time and though it was then named as the Punjab Exhibition Hall of 1864, his name was suggested much later once The Mall was fully functional. Tollinton was instrumental in collecting funds for this project.

In the ground opposite the new hall in the garden of the ‘baradari’ of Wazir Khan, stood the Zamzama Cannon which had been removed from outside Delhi Gate. This was once again removed in 1870 and placed opposite the new Town Hall, which the then Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Albert, inaugurated.

The Punjab Exhibition of 1864 was inaugurated by the Lt. Governor of the Punjab, Sir Robert Montgomery, and it was full of exhibits from all over the Punjab, which in those days included the present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A dazzling display of antiques, manufactured goods, textiles and a wide range of products, fruits and vegetables, let alone minerals and other raw materials, were on display.

Alongside these were samples of British products, which in its time brought home the industrial strength of the colonial rulers. In a way this central objective of the rulers paved the way for the building of the Lahore Museum, which opened its doors to the public on 1894.

Soon the renamed Punjab Exhibition Hall of 1864 was renamed Tollinton Market after the person who led the effort and saw the great exhibition through. It then became the largest fruit and vegetable market, as well as housed stores, becoming the most visited market of Lahore. In the 1980s this market was moved away to Jail Road in a building whose rotting smell is now legendary in Lahore.

To everyone’s shock plans to demolish the historic Tollinton Market hall were ordered. This plan was met with stiff resistance by the artists and civil society of Lahore. The government, happily, relented.

A renovated ollinton Market was handed over to the NCA, and then a Lahore Museum of sorts was put in place. But then experts argue that with such a well-ventilated hall setting up a ‘museum’ is not sensible. It needs to be restored as an exhibition hall. It goes without saying that a lot of effort is needed to give this idea final shape. The sooner this is done the better.