Once upon a time, Lahore's Charing Cross located on the Mall Road was the public square for people to be seen and heard. It was a place where the public life thrived and people loved to be seen. It used to be like a human psychological parking space which was tranquil and calm. It won’t be wrong to put it in a way that it reflected the times when the Charing Cross was the jewel of the British Empire in Punjab. Now today we rush past the history, long forgotten, where there is an exhibition of multiple layers experienced absorbed and reflected impressions of different periods and occasions.
From a road junction to a public square to a dead traffic island, the spirit of the Charing Cross had evolved a lot. In the middle of the crossing used to be the garden where today juts out from the ground a needle-like Monument called The Summit Minaret, designed by Vedat Dalokay (Turkish Architect, 1927-1991), a reminder of the Islamic Summit of 1974. The Canopy that stands in the middle of the garden was designed by the famous architect of Lahore, Bhai Ram Singh. In the canopy, the grand statue of Queen Victoria was placed that looked across the sloping Queens Road. Decades later, a wooden model of the Holy Quran was kept, replacing the statue.
Facing the canopy, across the road, are two buildings of considerable historical significance. One is Shahdin Manzil Building on the Western side of the crossing, while on the Eastern side is the Freemasons Lodge. The Punjab Assembly lies in the backdrop of the canopy and Summit Minaret. If one was to approach the canopy from the West, the building to the left is the Al-Falah Building, where once was a beautiful garden. To the Eastern side, where today stands Wapda House were rows of shops in the Mela Ram Building and the Jodha Lal Building. To the right was the famous Nedou's Hotel, where today stands the Avari Hotel. Thus, this square has great significance in regards to its placement and its neighbouring context.
Over the time during early 21st century, Lahore has been subjected to the problems arising from the increase in the number of automobiles. Traffic congestion plagued the streets and hence more space has been created for the cars which had ultimately digested the space of pedestrians. It started with widening of streets, then route changes, then complete road changes with new bridges spinning the whole infrastructure. This is how the Charing Cross lost its access to the public.
The High-speed traffic corridor in front of the square and lack of connected sidewalks makes it difficult for the pedestrians to cross over. The lack of public dwelling resulted in the isolated square, thus losing its public life. This generated the security issue as there were no eyes on the square as the motion in space made it unsafe to dwell. The absence of public access and interaction resulted in the unsafe and abandoned space that formed the basis of the death of the square.
In the last two decades, the Charing Cross square went silent and alarming. Since 2006, the Charing Cross has been clouded in the smoke of riots, protests and terrorist’s attacks. While the whole city has been gripped in these fears, the Charing Cross being the centre for political and administrative activities remained the main target for such events. With this new layer of terror and politics, Individuals had adopted defensive behaviours to protect themselves and avoid going to public places including Charing Cross.
The intoxication of fear has increased when there came high walls and razor wires around the Punjab Assembly which forms the backdrop of the square. It further followed with the political banners around the square which forms the physical and visual clutter destroying the serenity of the space. The security picket around the square forms the hostile impact on the public. The police checkpoints and concrete barriers make the human parking space a nightmare and form a spatial clutter. The suicide bombing in February 2013 at the Charing cross put the final nail in the coffin towards the death of the great square. The physical and social fabric of the square has then evolved into an inaccessible space screaming with abandonment and fear.
The Charing Cross has endured a lot in the past decades like Lahore itself. But Lahore is in better state and we are hopeful that one day the Charing Cross will also be habitable again. Charing Cross is a survivor like Lahore itself. And we hope people would be allowed to access museum, auditorium, and meeting spaced housed in this public space.
But before moving forward and closing the bittersweet history of Charing Cross, I urge everyone to think for a moment that when we demand wider roads and corporate buildings, then we are either demanding them on the behalf of the death of some square or a hundred year old tree. Because widening the streets here and there, forming ring roads around the cities and converting the agricultural lands into commercial ones, we are losing them; we are losing the essence of life which dwells in the public spaces. Now is the time that we pay attention towards this matter before it gets too late.
Comments