One Hundred Years of Solitude

What you see today as Wildflower Hall is not what stood here in 1911 — not even a door or a window of it. And yet that’s what the site has always been known as. Originally constructed as a bungalow in the 1860s,Wildflower Hall is the place that Lord Kitchener,the formidable general of the Indian Armed Forces from 1902-09,fell in love with this place. The man who won fame for his imperial campaigns and played a central role in the early part of the First World War lived here,and spent lavishly on landscaping the wilderness.

Raaj Bhasin,chronicler of Shimla’s glory days,says Lord Kitchener’s stay at Wildflower Hall contributed to the development of Shimla. “Wildflower Hall is still connected to Shimla by the Sanjauli tunnel. This was probably the first mountain tunnel to be built in the country (8,250 feet above sea level). Right up to Kitchener’s time,this was little more than a hole in the hill,” recounts Bhasin. In 1909,after Lord Kitchener returned to England,Wildflower Hall was sold to Robert Hotz and his wife. After demolishing the old house,Hotz erected a fine three-storey hotel whose doors opened for only the high and mighty — British officers (or their families) and the royalty.

Hotz had already built a formidable reputation for herself as a lady of clout. If Lord Kitchener commanded armies,Hotz lorded over money. The Cecil,opened by her at Shimla in 1883,had immediately carved a niche for itself — which it retains till now. (Incidentally,the Cecil,where Raj Bahadir Oberoi started his hotel career as a clerk,and Wildflower Hall are now both Oberoi properties.) The “repeated pinpricks administered by the Simla municipality” made Hotz explore other locations in the Shimla area and she settled upon Wildflower Hall. The old house was demolished,and in 1911 the hotel opened. The summer flirtations that began in the capital reached fruition here. And what was said of The Savoy at Mussoorie in 1926 could well be true of The Wildflower Hall too: “They ring a bell just before dawn so that the pious may say their prayers and the impious get back to their own beds.”

The ownership of the flourishing hotel changed hands soon after Partition — the Hotz family suddenly lost much of its clientele. In 1948,it was sold to the Indian government,which converted it into an agricultural school that also had a boarding on the premises. “Expectedly,all the grace and glamour was shovelled out. Hobnailed boots now tramped over the ballroom,and the talk shifted from roast and souffle to fertiliser and crops,” records Bhasin. Wildflower Hall’s return to its status as a luxury hotel was courtesy Indira Gandhi,during her first term as Prime Minister. She was staying a few hundred yards away at The Retreat,the residence of the viceroy during the Raj. Appalled by the state of Wildflower Hall,she ordered the Himachal Pradesh government to convert it into a hotel. This was done,and a hotel it was till March 1993,when a devastating fire burnt it to the ground.

But the site was still the famous ‘Wildflower Hall’,where history and romance had blended seamlessly during the days of the Raj. In 1995 the Himachal government entered into a joint venture with the Oberoi group,and the new hotel opened for guests in 2001. The British and the Maharajas may not be there,but it retains its exclusivity as a luxury hotel,only for the uber rich. Storm Mason,executive assistant manager at the hotel,recalls Peter Lewis,a resident of Canada who visited Wildflower Hall late last year. “He told us his parents had come here in 1931,and that it was very expensive. A room with an adjoining sitting room cost Rs 10 a night — a princely sum at that time indeed,” says Mason. Through the years,Lewis’s parents had told him Wildflower Hall was the hot spot to be in,and that he must go there some day.

Wildflower Hall certainly is a magnificent doorway to the time of wine and roses,and still maintains its history of exclusivity. A board displayed on the hotel gardens specifies,‘Only for the use of residents’. Bhasin gets it right when he says,“Today,Wildflower Hall has been rebuilt from scratch and on velvet palms,cups the grace and an age gone.”