This house, better described as a palace, was built between 1799 and 1803 by Marquess Wellesley. While former governor generals had been accommodated in a variety of houses, on taking up his post Wellesley was determined to occupy a house worthy of the position. As his architect he engaged an officer in the Bengal Engineers, Charles Wyatt (1759-1819); Wyatt based his design on James Paine’s and Robert Adam’s Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. The original plan of Kedleston Hall, with its central block and four detached wings linked to the centre by curving corridors, allowed for good circulation of air so was an excellent choice for a tropical climate. Government House was built of brick covered in white plaster that was rewashed every year, giving it a luminous appearance that is striking in early paintings.
Lutyens designed the gardens on a series of terraces in Persian style, creating beautiful geometrical patterns from water, fountains, red sandstone, grass, flowers and trees. Not surprisingly, some of his designs had to be modified owing to demands for economy; as a result, he was unable to clad the house in marble but used instead the local sandstone, also employed by the Moguls. The bands of deep red and cream stone, together with the positioning of walls along a series of receding horizontal lines around the building, give to the massive structure a strong sense of movement.
The Viceroy’s House was finally completed in 1929 and the city of New Delhi was inaugurated with great ceremony in 1931. Lutyens’s wife Emily was expressing the popular view when she wrote home to her children:
this remains a colossal and wonderful achievement and should make father’s name go down in history as one of the architects of all time
The Viceroy’s House is now the residence of the President of India.