Steeped in history and soaked in the annals of Darjeeling’s glorious past, travel back in time toone of the finest Colonial Hotels in India in the heart of the sprawling Indian tea industry.
How the Windamere Hotel came to be….
The East India Company was initially formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, but it ended up seizing control over large parts of the Indian subcontinent. British India was characterized by a larger influx of British people who wanted to stay and work in the Indian subcontinent. This sudden boom in population had to be compensated by an overwhelming need for accommodation. This resulted in the emergence of “English Boarding Houses”. Ada Villa was one such Victorian house built in the mid-1800s in Darjeeling and turned into an English Boarding House in the late 1880s. Ada Villa served the critical purpose of providing accommodation for bachelor English and Scottish tea planters thronging the area. Presently, Ada Villa is known as “Windamere Hotel”. It was converted into a hotel just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Fast forward to 2019 and The Windamere Hotel is still the epitome of mesmerising old-world colonial charm. Situated upon the sacred and holy Observatory Hill in Darjeeling, it is the centre of life, radiating cosmic energies of the mighty Himalayas. Windamere has also built more contemporary houses in the ‘Snuggery’ area around the late 1980s and into the early 1990s but, the age-old Boarding House atmosphere is still kept intact by adhering to the old Colonial way of living.
In recent mentions…
Windamere is regarded as one of the best ‘Colonial Hotels’, today in India. The ‘Asia Pacific Geographic Magazine’, listed it as number 3 in their assessment of: “The Top Ten Best Colonial Hotels in the Asia Pacific Area”it has to be stated that they were right behind such iconic hotels as ‘Raffles of Singapore’!. ‘The Sunday Times of London’ wrote that Windamere was listed as “One of ‘The Best Colonial Hotels in the World”. A celebrated travel writer of The WindamereHotel once said that “It is one of the three Jewels of the Raj”
Closure
Everything around Windamere Hotel may have changed but to this day, the hotel has never been renovated – just ‘restored’. It still boasts of the authenticity of the initial “Planter Suites”, which have been renamed as ‘The Royal Suites’ in recent times. The Royal Suites remind us that in the course of history, these Colonial rooms have been graced by the presence of royalty from Europe, Sikkim, Bhutan, Thailand, and India. Windamere Hotel has stood the daunting test of time and has emerged to be an important landmark, reminiscent of Colonial India’s charm and unpretentious glamour.
For more info pls visit us at http://windamerehotel.com/