Koti Residency
| Koti Residency | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Royal mansion |
| Location | Hyderabad, India |
| Completed | Circa 1798 |
Koti Residency or British Residency or "Hyderabad Residency" is an opulent mansion built by the British Resident of Hyderabad state, James Achilles Kirkpatrick during 1798–1805. It is a minor tourist attraction and located in Koti, Hyderabad.
The design is a palladian villa which is similar in same design to its near-contemporary in the United States, the White House (rebuilt after being destroyed by the British in 1812). It is the subject of William Dalrymple's White Mughals. The house was designed by Lieutenant Samuel Russell of the Madras Engineers and construction began in 1803.
History
Kirkpatrick built this mansion for himself and his Indian wife Khair un Nissa, who bore him two surviving children who were sent to England by the age of 5 and never saw them again due to their early deaths of their parents.
Koti, meaning a mansion, is a huge mansion built in Palladian Georgian style. The building was at once the embassy of the East India Company to the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the residence of James Kirkpatrick, the British Resident, as well as his successors. Within its compound there were several quarters, including a zenana (women's quarters) where Khair un Nissa lived. Within the compound was a miniature of the building- legend has it that this was so Kirkpatrick's wife, who remained in purdah, could see the entire mansion, including the front. This scale model is now in ruins.
In 1949 it was converted into a women's college, Osmania University College for Women.
After a court directive to the Archeological Survey of India, it is now a protected monument. However, the building has suffered much damage and part of the ceiling has collapsed.[1]
British Residents at Hyderabad included:
- Major James Achilles Kirkpatrick (1797–1805)
- Captain Thomas Sydenham (1806–1810)
- Sir Henry Russell (1811–1820)
- Lord Charles Metcalfe (1820–1825)
- Colonel Cuthbert Davidson (1857–1862)
- Sir Richard Temple (1867–1868)
- C. B. Saunders (1868-1872)
- Sir Richard Meade (1875-1881)
- John Graham Cordery (1883–1888)
- Sir Trevor Chichele Plowden (1891–1900)
- Michael O'Dwyer (1908–1909)
- Colonel Alexander Pinhey (1911–1916)
- Sir Stuart Fraser (1916–1919)
- Sir Lennox Russell (1919–1925)
- Sir Duncan Mackenzie (1935–1938)
- Sir Arthur Lothian (1942–1946)
References
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Koti Residency. |
- ↑ "The British Residency in Hyderabad". Minor Sights. May 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ↑ http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/31/stories/2006083123110400.htm
http://www.amazon.com/White-Mughals-Betrayal-Eighteenth-Century-India/dp/014200412X