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The Viceregal Lodge
A Scottish baronial house finished in 1888 on a Himalayan ridge, from which a fifth of humanity was governed for six months a year — and where, in 1947, the table was set out on which India was divided.
The Viceregal Lodge
From 1864 the entire government of British India moved from the plains to Shimla every summer — the Viceroy, the council, the departments, the files — and from 1888 the Viceroy did it into this building on Observatory Hill. It is Scottish baronial, in grey stone, with turrets and a porte-cochère, and it was designed to be self-sufficient in a way nothing else in the town was: it had electric light before most of London. The interiors are teak and walnut, with a galleried hall rising through the centre of the house. What gives the building its weight now is what happened in it at the end: the 1945 Simla Conference was held here, and so were the 1947 discussions that produced the plan to partition India, and the round table those talks used is still in the room. It is now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, so it remains a working building rather than a museum.
Explore The Viceregal Lodge on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
What to see
A guided tour of a few ground-floor rooms, and grounds you can walk at your own pace.
Inside
- The central hall, galleried in teak and walnut and rising through the height of the house, which is the room the building is really about.
- The room in which the 1947 partition discussions were held, with the round table still in it.
- The former ballroom and the panelled corridors, which the tour passes through.
- The photographs and documents of the Simla Conference, displayed where the conference happened.
Outside
- The exterior itself — grey ashlar, turrets and a porte-cochère, which is an extraordinary thing to find at 2,200 m in the Himalaya.
- The gardens and lawns, which are extensive, well kept and open to ticket holders without a tour.
- The view from the grounds across to the ranges, which is why the site was chosen.
Around it
- The Himalayan Bird Park, a short walk from the entrance.
- The walk back into town along the Mall, which takes about forty minutes and is the pleasant way to do it.
- Observatory Hill itself, which is quiet, wooded and worth a slow walk down.
Getting there
At the western end of the ridge, about four kilometres from the Ridge itself.
From central Shimla
- Roughly 4 km west of the Ridge — fifteen minutes by taxi, or a walk of about forty minutes along the Mall and beyond it.
- The walk is pleasant, largely level and through deodar for the last stretch, and is how most of Shimla gets about.
- Taxis run to the gate; from the gate to the house is a walk of a few hundred metres through the grounds.
Tickets and tours
- Grounds and interior are ticketed separately, and the interior is seen on a guided tour rather than independently.
- Tours run at intervals through the day in Hindi and English and take about half an hour.
- It is a working institute and closes one day a week; confirm before planning a day around it.
Combining it
- With Christ Church and the Ridge, which are at the other end of the same walk.
- With Jakhoo Temple, which is the climb above the Ridge and is best kept for a separate half-day.
- With Kufri, which is 16 km east and is an afternoon of its own.
When to visit
Morning, on a clear day, and not on the weekly closing day.
Time of day
- Morning, when the tours are less full and the light is on the front of the building.
- The grounds are at their best in the late afternoon if you are not taking the tour.
- Tours stop well before the site closes; do not arrive late expecting to get inside.
Time of year
- March to June is the main season and the busiest, particularly in May.
- September to November gives clear views from the grounds and far fewer people.
- December to February is cold, sometimes snowbound and very atmospheric; the building was designed for exactly this.
How long
- An hour covers the tour and a walk in the gardens.
- Ninety minutes if you take the grounds slowly, which is worth doing.
- Add forty minutes each way if you are walking from the Ridge rather than driving.
Visitor intelligence
A working academic institution that admits visitors, not a house museum, and it behaves like one.
The tour
- Only a small number of ground-floor rooms are open, and only on the guided tour. The upper floors are in academic use.
- The guides are institute staff and the quality varies; asking direct questions gets much better answers than listening passively.
- Photography inside is generally not permitted. The grounds and exterior are unrestricted.
The history
- Ask specifically about the 1945 Simla Conference and the 1947 talks. That is the substance of the place and it is easy to be walked past it.
- The building’s self-sufficiency — its own water and electricity in the 1880s — is the other thread worth pulling.
- The move of the entire government from the plains each summer is the fact that makes sense of Shimla as a whole.
Practicalities
- Confirm the weekly closing day before building an itinerary around it.
- The walk from the gate to the house is a few hundred metres uphill through the grounds.
- There is a café near the entrance and nothing inside the house itself.
Access
- The grounds are broadly manageable on made paths with a gradient from the gate.
- The tour route inside is on one level once you are up the entrance steps, of which there are several.
- A vehicle can usually be taken closer to the house if arranged at the gate; ask rather than assume.
Nearby
All within Shimla, and all on the standard day.
Frequently asked
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