>Tom.Reding at 01:01, 16 November 2020

2020-11-16T01:01:18Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2017}}
'''Chapslee Estate''' is a small locality adjacent to the [[Lakkar Bazaar]] in [[Shimla]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], India. The estate houses the erstwhile Secretary's Lodge which is now a heritage hotel run by the erstwhile [[Maharaja of Kapurthala]].

== History ==
Chapslee is one of the oldest estates in Shimla having been built between 1828 and 1835. It was built by Doctor Blake, a surgeon in the service of the [[British East India Company]].

[[George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland|Lord Auckland]], Governor General of the East India Company Territories, was a resident of the adjoining [[Auckland House School, Shimla|Auckland House]]. Finding the accommodation insufficient, he took this property first on rent and later purchased it in 1836, to house his private & Military Secretaries, ‘[[Aide-de-camp|Aides De Camps]]’ (ADC’s) and named it ‘Secretary’s Lodge’.

The Estate now has a school on it, and the home is run as an exclusive, heritage home by the owner Kanwar Ratanjit Singh and his family. He is the grandson of Raja Charanjit Singh of Kapurthala.

== First Anglo-Afghan War ==
In June 1838, a tripartite treaty between the Government of India, [[Ranjit Singh]] and [[Shuja Shah Durrani|Shah Shuja]] was signed for the latter's restoration. Following this, [[Lord Auckland]] issued the Simla Manifesto announcing the intention of the Government of India to restore Shah Shuja to the throne of [[Afghanistan]].

The ‘Simlah Manifesto’, declaring the [[First Anglo-Afghan War|first war with Afghanistan]], was issued from ‘Secretary’s Lodge’ on 1 October 1838.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chapslee.com/profile.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2013-02-07 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504130523/http://www.chapslee.com/profile.html |archivedate=4 May 2013 |df= }}</ref> [[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough|Lord Ellenborough]], who succeeded Lord Auckland as [[Governor-General of India|Governor General]] acknowledged the failure of Lord Auckland’s policy in Afghanistan. On 1 October 1842, precisely four years after the issue of the Simla Manifesto, the Government proclaimed its altered intentions.

[[Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge|Lord Hardinge]], who succeeded Lord Ellenborough as Governor General, continued to use Secretary’s Lodge as the Government Secretariat. General [[Peter Innes (general)|Peter Innes]] of the [[Bengal Army]] purchased Secretary’s Lodge in 1848 and changed its name to '''Chapslee'''. General Innes sold the house in 1870 and, thereafter, it changed hands every few years and served as the residence of famous persons, including Colonel William Gordon (around 1877),<ref>{{cite news|newspaper= London Evening Standard| date=19 March 1875| page=7| title=Births| url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/18750319/051/0007}}</ref> [[Sir Courtenay Ilbert]], General Pemberton, General Sir C. E. Nairne, Surgeon-General Bradshaw, Surgeon-General Cleghorn and so on.<ref>deBruyn, P Bain, K Venkatraman, N Joshi, S (2008)Frommer's India, John Wiley & Sons, P105</ref>

Sir Arthur Mitford Ker, CIE, MVO, manager of the Alliance Bank, eventually purchased it in 1896,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19141020/013/0002| newspaper=Dundee Evening Telegraph| date=20 October 1914| page=2| title=Names in the casualty lists|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and improved its looks to the way it stands today. He not only retained the original structure but enlarged it significantly.

[[Raja Charanjit Singh]] of [[Kapurthala]] purchased the estate after the demise of [[Sir Arthur Mitford Ker]]. He converted it to his summer residence and refurnished the interiors. Raja Charanjit Singh died in 1970.

Kanwar Ratanjit Singh, the grandson of the Late Raja Charanjit Singh of Kapurthala, is the present owner. He started a school, known as ‘Chapslee School’, on the premises in 1973 and converted the estate to a hotel in 1976. Chapslee was one of the first ‘[[heritage hotel]]s’ in India.

Parts of the estate were sold to different people in the 1970s post the [[Urban Land Ceiling Act (India)|land ceiling act]] imposed by the [[Government of India]].

In keeping with the rule of restricted roads in [[Shimla]], only vehicles with special permit are allowed to ply through the estate road.

The estate is en route to [[Longwood, Shimla|Longwood]], a residential locality of [[Shimla]].

==In news==
Chapslee Estate featured on [[CNN]] in season 3 episode 1 "Punjab, India" of ''[[Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown]]'', which was broadcast on 13 April 2014.

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.chapslee.com Chapslee Hotel website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070630171701/http://himachal.nic.in/tcp/ShimlaHeritageReport.pdf HP Govt report]
* [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020223/windows/main3.htm Article in ''The Tribune'' (India)]

{{coord missing|Himachal Pradesh}}

[[Category:History of Himachal Pradesh]]
[[Category:Military of British India]]
[[Category:Kapurthala]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Shimla]]
[[Category:Heritage hotels in India]]

Chapslee Estate - Revision history

>Tom.Reding at 01:01, 16 November 2020