Historic Himalaya Club stands frozen in time
Ajay Ramola
Tribune News Service
Mussoorie,December 27
The Himalaya Club, now Hotel Himalaya Castle, was one of the most happening places in the Queen of Hills during the British Raj. It was considered an important tourist destination.
The club was constituted in 1841 with 148 members. Col Fredrick Young was its president and George Bacon vice-president. The number of members was not limited. The original shareholders were considered members while others were admitted by ballot. Among luminaries who were part of the club were PW Mackinnon, Col (retd) Rennie RAMC and J Banks.
The club committee of 1906 comprised H. Vansittarta as chairman, Capt Stuart secretary and Col Kellie, IMS Major Luther, Maj Delme-Redcliffe, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and Capt Crosthwait as members.
Australian barrister, advocate and writer John Lang was also a member of the club. He was buried at the Camel’s Back Road cemetery. Proby Cautley, who built the Ganga canal in Haridwar, was also a member of the club. By 1907, the club had nearly 775 members.
The club building had 32 sets for bachelors and eight suites for married couples in a section named ‘The Oaks’. It had a tennis courts, a separate dining hall and a reading room for women. The club was known for ballroom dances, which used to attract people from across the county. Some relationships were made and some broken during their stay in the club, say local historians.
John Lang, who spent a major part of his life at the Himalaya Club, describes the view from one of the bedrooms as: “From the back of the club house, from your bedroom windows … you have a view of Deyrah Dhoon. It appears about a mile off. It is seven miles distant. The plains that lie outstretched below the Simplon bear, in point of extent and beauty, to the Indian scene, nothing like the proportion which the comparatively pigmy Mont Blanc bears to the Dewalgiri. From an elevation of about seven thousand feet the eye embraces a plain containing millions of acres, intersected by broad streams to the left, and inclosed [sic] by a low belt of hills, called the Pass. The Dhoon, in various parts, is dotted with clumps of jungle, abounding with tigers, pheasants, and every species of game. In the broad tributaries to the Ganges and the Jumna, may be caught (with a fly) the mahseer, the leviathan salmon. Beyond the pass of which I have spoken you see the plains of Hindoostan.” Famous staircases at the club where Britishers would pose for pictures are still intact.
Prabahat Vaish says his grandfather had bought the property in 1928. Although rooms have been modified and interiors upgraded, not much changes have been introduced and the overall view of the property is still the same.
