Making of New Delhi: Maps, Architecture and Colonial Politics!

This June, DelhiByFoot returns with “Twilight in the City” - a summer series dedicated to exploring the city after sunset.
As Delhi slows down under the weight of June afternoons, the city quietly begins another life at night, cooler, softer, more intimate, and filled with stories waiting to be stumbled upon. Through this series, we invite you to step out after hours and experience a different rhythm of Delhi: one shaped by moonlight, old conversations, lingering music, hidden corners, and the strange magic that only arrives once the sun goes down.

For our 2nd walk of the series, we walk through the heart of the capital to uncover the remarkable story of how a landscape of ridges, villages and ruins was transformed into the newest city of Delhi. Through stories of planners, architects, surveyors and map-makers, we’ll rediscover the city not merely as a collection of buildings and roads, but as a masterpiece of design, imagination and cartographic precision.

Before New Delhi became the grand capital of a Colonial Empire, it existed as grandiose egos, tentative contours & lines on paper, and eventually as ambitious ideas in the minds of planners, surveyors, architects and cartographers.

The story begins in the early years of the twentieth century, when the British Empire decided to shift its capital from Calcutta to Delhi. What followed was nearly three decades of intense debate, political intrigue, engineering challenges, architectural experimentation and meticulous planning. Finally culminating in the hard work of thousands of Indian labourers working hard to put stone on the map...and so rose each avenue, roundabout, vista and government building!!

Join DelhiByFoot as we trace the fascinating story of how one of the world’s most carefully planned cities emerged from the rocky ridges of Raisina, scattered villages of Malcha and Jaisinghpura, bustling settlements like Madhoganj, and the remnants of older imperial capitals that once occupied this landscape.

Expect stories of dreamers and planners, maps and monuments, successes and setbacks, and the remarkable process through which a landscape was transformed into a capital city.

Come join fellow history enthusiasts, photographers, sketchers, writers and curious city lovers as we rediscover New Delhi, not merely as a city of roads and buildings, but as a masterpiece first drawn on paper before it rose from the ground.

Walk conducted in a delightful mix of English, Hindi and Urdu, with occasional doses of British English! (LOL)

BOOKING LINK: https://go.allevents.in/making-of-ND

DATE & TIME: 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM | Saturday 13 June 2026
MEETING POINT: Central Secretariat Metro Stn.
CHARGES: Rs.750/- person
*Students & Senior Citizen pay 450/- person

ESSENTIALS:
1-Do wear a good pair of walking shoes or flip-flops
2-Delhi has an ever-increasing pile of plastic waste so let's not add to it by buying mineral water bottles. SO PLEASE CARRY YOUR BOTTLE OF WATER.

FOR ANY QUERY CALL+91 9871181775