What remains of old Simla is mostly Victorian and Edwardian, a bizarre mix of "cricket pavilion" and institutional Gothic architecture with odd mock-oriental and Tyrolean flourishes. The British liked the place so much that in 1862 they made it the summer capital of India, moving the entire administration there for up to seven months of the year, with all the files and papers carried on mule-back from Calcutta, and later Delhi, up the steep Himalayan paths. It was, of course, a completely ludicrous, impractical and ultimately disastrous idea. Simla became an increasingly claustrophobic society...
VIEW(S) : 2916