Victoria Hall, Udaipur

Photograph of Victoria Hall from the 'Reading Collection: Views of Udaipur' taken by an unknown photographer c.1910. The photograph is part of an album containing architectural and topographical views of sites in Rajasthan, mainly of Udaipur, originally in the collection of Rufus Daniel Isaacs, Lord Reading, who served as Viceroy of India (1921-1926).

Victoria Hall was built to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 by the Public Works Department of Udaipur. The hall originally housed a museum and library. This general view shows the front elevation with a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the building. In his ‘Handbook of Meywar’ published in 1888, Fateh Lal Metha wrote: “This hall will be a very beautiful building, and will add greatly to the beauty of the [Samor] gardens, besides being a source of pleasure and instruction to the public. A statue of the Queen-Empress will be erected in front of the building".