Jaipur: Albert Hall

When our driver first brought up about Albert Hall, my first thought was, "Here goes, he's going to bring us to buy pewter." Somehow Albert Hall striked me as a place which sells pewter (Read: Royal Selangor), let alone that fact that Royal Selangor is a Malaysia brand. So it was a rather pleasant surprise to see this beautiful building when we were finally there.

Albert Hall which is also known as the Government Central Museum, was a design by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob. It was commissioned by Sawai Ram Singh II to honour the visit of Albert, the Prince of Wales in 1886. This architecture, has a Indo-Saracenic style, a hybrid from that combined modern European with traditional Indian elements.

The foundation stone of Albert Hall was laid during the visit of Prince Albert Edward in 1876. At that time, it had yet to be determined what use it would be put it.

In 1880, Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II approved a suggestion by Dr Thomas Holbein Hendley to open a museum of Industrial Arts to display products of local craftsmen. Albert Hall was completed in 1887.

We were here twice actually, the first time was the day we reached Jaipur but it was already closed for the day. We took some photos from the outside and proceeded to Birla Mandir. Needless to say, we bought tickets to enter the museum the second time.

Ground floor displays decorative shields, metal ware, pottery and an Egyptian mummy.

First floor has a collection of miniature paintings, wood carvings, ivory pieces, jewelleries, textiles and pottery objects.

After looking through the exhibits, we took more photos outside while wishing no bird poops landed on us. One can't ignore that fact that there were a lot of birds...

Side note: All these posts on India makes me feel like having some masala....