Chandni Chowk is where Delhi’s history, art, craft, fare, and merchandising collide. Narrow lanes, filled with street vendors, bullock carts, cars, pedal and auto rickshaws, horses, people, buses. You’ll find jewellery shops, camera and typewriter repair shops, stationery, food, clothes, bikes, wedding invitations, books by the kilo.
In the throes of this chaos is Haveli Dharampura, a restored 19th-century “haveli” or mansion. It is inconspicuous at first, since there are no signs directing you to it, but as you must walk past a few chai shops and a row of brass workshops (whose handicrafts line the alley), and the lane narrows enough to block out the mid-day sun, a three metre wooden door studded with iron rivets reveals itself.
A man in a red turban puts his hands together to welcome you to Haveli Dharampura. As the doors open, you step back 200 years, into an arabesque marble courtyard with a fountain, fringed with a corridor and an ancient treasure chest, visible under a glass pane.
Today, with its three-storeyed accommodation, a rooftop bar and cafe, and luxe dining halls, this boutique hotel offers modern comfort and regal grandeur. With only 13 rooms up for grabs, bookings need to be made well in advance.
Guests can expect to take in Sufi songs and classical kathak dance performances every weekend, along with daily kite races between children on neighbouring rooftops. And while their fathers train racing pigeons (a Mughal sport still prevalent in these parts) in the mornings and their mothers work tirelessly, drying poppadoms, spices and rose petals on their roofs.
The rooftop also comes complete with a view of the Red Fort, and the Jama Masjid, 17th-century relics of Old Delhi from its heyday.
Lakhori, which refers to the traditional red-clay bricks that line the restaurant’s walls, has only recently been granted its liquor license, offering a truly fulfilling culinary experience – complete with galouti kebabs and seasonal delicacies like daulat ki chaat, a dessert that takes a quarter of a day to make. Roughly translated into “a rich snack”, this winter dish is made with sweetened milk that is frothed by hand until pillows of microfoam form clouds, that are topped with crushed dried fruit and saffron.
Also worth trying on the winter menu are the spinach chaat and dahi puri – semolina balloons bursting with spiced yogurt that must be eaten in one shot.
Recently commended by the UN’s heritage body Unesco for its efforts to preserve cultural heritage, the haveli was, up until a decade ago, crumbling into the ground. While it boasts entirely refurbished floors and Indo-Islamic archways, the haveli maintains its steep steps, lattice stoneware screens for ventilation, and hookah and reading nooks.
The only architectural endeavour of its kind, Haveli Dharampura is paving the way for restoration in these parts. If you’re planning on staying here, stay not for its spa, or modern-day amenities but for the honest glimpse it offers into a simpler time.
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