Khyber Hotel at the Singer intersection of Preedy Street and Elphistone Street sometimes before partition. The tram turned here towards Bunder Road to go to Soldier Bazaar and Boulton Market. Next to Khyber there is a Noor Mahal Hotel. Xavier Institute for Typing and Short hand training was in this area. Empress Market can be seen in the background. Eduljee DInshaw Clinic is next to the Noor Mahal Hotel. Photo by VIncent Humphreys while stationed in Karachi during the second World War. (Amin H. Karim)
1940s: Bunder Road as seen looking northwards from Bolton Market area towards Lakshmi Building! Never seen this view before! Statue of Lakshmi still present; Built for the ‘Lakshmi Insurance Company,’ it was designed by the Karachi-based firm Maysers D H Daruwala & Co. in the Art Deco style, while the Hindustan Construction Company was the contractor. The red bricks for the façade were imported from Jaipur at the request of the insurance company’s owner Lala Lajpat Rai of Lahore. It was inaugurated on Christmas Eve, 1938 by the Indian poet and political activist Sarojini Naidu (whose name was later removed from the plaque that commemorates the building’s opening). Originally, a statue of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi was placed on top of the building, before removal in 1947 at the time of independence, when the owner migrated to India and sold the firm to a Parsi businessman, with some of the Hindu residents killed in the ensuing riots. The building was once known throughout Karachi for its state-of-the art clock-tower, and its iron elevator
Good Old Karachi 