Sadar Bazar Karachi - 1900

Sadar Bazar Karachi - 1900




For the past 30 years, the future of Empress Market and hence of Karachi’s Saddar has been a subject of debate among architects, planners, administrators and politicians. Some have proposed that the building should be turned into a museum, others have wanted it to become an art gallery and, more recently, the planners appointed by the government have proposed that it should be turned into a high-end dining space. There are also those who have said it is, after all, Empress Market (the emphasis being on market). So why should it not remain a market?

All proposals have been accompanied by area plans. The proposal of the present city mayor is simple: Empress Market should be restored to its former glory. To which period “former” belongs to has not been defined.

The future function of Empress Market will, to a great extent determine whether Saddar is to acquire an elitist and sanitised physical and social environment, taking away yet more more space from the middle-middle, lower-middle and working classes of the city, or will it, in some way, reflect its existing populous nature. After the recent demolition of the bazaars around Empress Market, the eviction of shopkeepers from within it, and the removal of the hawkers from Saddar’s streets and pavements, the question of its future has become all the more important, not only for Saddar, but for Karachi as a whole. So, a bit of history is necessary.


The recent ‘anti-encroachment’ drive in Karachi has resulted in the loss of over 200,000 jobs as well as threats to the multi-class social and cultural fabric of Saddar. Eos presents a proposal to ensure that the city’s tangible and intangible heritage are both preserved...

Saddar was established in 1839, after the British occupied Karachi as a trading post, in competition with the markets of the native city which were located within and on the periphery of the walled city of Karachi, mainly in the areas of Kharadar and Mithadar. After the annexation of Sindh in 1843, the British administrative and military functions were located in Saddar and its environs. The first Church in Karachi was also built in 1843 in Saddar and, between then and the turn of the century, a large number of the important administrative and military complexes were constructed in Saddar along with civic and religious buildings of the Christian and Parsi communities.

The freedom fighters of the rebellion of 1857 against the British were also blown from the mouths of cannons in Saddar on the parade ground where Empress Market is located today and the parts of their blown-up bodies were buried in pits on the parade ground. As such, Empress Market is also their mausoleum. There are many legends associated with the rebellion and they survive with the residents of Chanesar Goth, many of whose ancestors were sent to Kala Paani to die of disease and starvation because they had supported the rebellion led by Ramay Panday, who was from Bareli (in Uttar Pradesh) and a Subedar in the army of the East India Company.

Empress Market was inaugurated in 1889. It was designed as a meat, vegetable, fruit and household goods market and it was meant for the families of the British administrators and soldiers and Goans and Parsis who inhabited Saddar. The area around the market had posh cafes, bars, and restaurants such as the Saddar Tea Rooms, Elphinstone Restaurant, India Coffee House, the old Todi shop and Café Parisian. Badly dressed persons were not permitted to enter Saddar and it came to be known as the European Quarter of Karachi where the white population could shop in a not unfamiliar environment, often with merchandise brought from home.

Here it is important to note that Empress Market was part of a larger urban design project. It was placed on the axis of Napier Street (Karam Ali Talpur Road). During the same period, the Edulji Dinshaw Dispensary was also built (1882) and it was placed on the axis of Somerset Street (Raja Ghazanfar Ali Road). The Parsi maternity home was built in 1917. These three buildings are built around Jahangir Park, which was inaugurated in 1883 and was the first and last gravel park of Karachi.

A number of other axes were also created by the British. An important one in Saddar is Clark Street (Shahrah-e-Iraq). Christ the King monument and St. Patrick’s Cathedral lie on its axis and so does the High Court. Before Partition, there was an important monument on the crossing of Clark Street and Somerset Street emphasising the importance of the axis. The monument has long since disappeared. In any plan for Saddar, the importance of these axes has to be taken into account and respected.

Because of its importance, Saddar also became an important public transport terminal of a city that, by 1941, had a population of 450,000. Bus routes terminated here and it was an important tramway junction. #fastitlinks.com click here to more info