After years of restoration work, the former British Residency – now part of the Osmania Women’s University College – is the first project to be completed under a new £4.5million Commonwealth-wide conservation programme.
The 216-year-old building has been undergoing piecemeal restoration for almost 20 years. Heavy local traffic, poor maintenance and faulty repairs had left the building in acute disrepair.
In 2002 it was added to the World Monuments Fund’s Watch list which champions heritage places in critical need of protection. It has now been restored thanks to years of painstaking conservation work by the World Monuments Fund and a partnership of international and local charities and private donors.
The final phase of the building’s restoration was completed by a team of trainees provided under the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Commonwealth Heritage Skills training programme. The programme, which was launched in May 2022 is funded by UK charity the Hamish Ogston Foundation.
Over the next five years the programme, which is managed by the Commonwealth Heritage forum, will train more than 500 people from disadvantaged communities in a wide range of skills, from stonemasonry and joinery to mud brick and thatch, helping to revive traditional crafts and skills to deliver jobs and life-changing opportunities throughout the Commonwealth.
Sixteen young trainees from the UK and Hyderabad worked on the restoration project, learning practical conservation skills such as slaking lime for re-plastering the South Porch. Sessions on jack-arch roof construction were followed by practical reconstruction work on the Lansdowne Gate – one of the three, monumental historic gateways at the entrance to the Residency’s grounds.
The trainees, the majority of them women, received instruction from leading architects and heritage professionals to help them develop the skills required in heritage conservation and management.
The restored building is now part of the Osmania Women’s University College campus where every year more than 2,500 women are educated at undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma and certificate levels in science, commerce and arts subjects. Engineering courses are planned for the future.
British businessman and philanthropist Hamish Ogden, whose foundation is funding the heritage skills training programme, said that completion of the British Residency project marks a major milestone.
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“Our first Hyderabad project shows what Commonwealth citizens can achieve together and what the benefit to local communities can be, in this case literally, carved out of our shared Commonwealth heritage,” said Ogden.
“This programme is securing the heritage champions of the future by building local skills capacity and creating jobs for life. I look forward to the next phase of our programme starting in Barbados, so we can continue to make a meaningful difference to more people around the Commonwealth.”
Philip Davies, founder and consultant executive director of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum said:
“The former British Residency is one of the most spectacular European historic buildings in India; an outstanding example of what is a truly shared heritage – designed by a British military engineer but constructed by local craftsmen.
“For over 50 years it has been slowly decaying. To see it finally restored to its former glory and used as test bed for heritage skills training for both local and international trainees is exactly in line with the mission of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum and our Commonwealth Heritage Skills programme.
“This is just the first of many similar projects we envisage across the globe working in conjunction with international and local partners to conserve and adapt the heritage that local people value.”
The next heritage conservation project under the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Commonwealth Heritage training programme has just begun in Barbados. Six UK-based trainees have joined with a dozen participants from Tulane University and trainees from the University of the West Indies to develop a conservation management plan for Roebuck Street at the heart of the Bridgetown World Heritage Site.
Using drones, LiDAR, and 3D scanning, trainees will map the 650-metre historic street whilst developing partnerships with local stakeholders and heritage groups.
In India, the next heritage conservation project will be the Roxburgh House Herbarium and Botanic Garden in Kolkata, where funds provided by the Hamish Ogston Foundation have just arrived for the first stage of the project.
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