Frere Hall (Urdu: فریئر ہال) is a building in Karachi, Pakistan that dates from the early British colonial era in Sindh. Completed in 1865, Frere Hall was originally intended to serve as Karachi’s town hall,[1] and now serves as an exhibition space and library.
Location
Frere Hall is located in central Karachi’s colonial-era Saddar Town, in the Civil Lines neighborhood that is home to several consulates.[2] The hall is located between Abdullah Haroon Road (formerly Victoria Road) and Fatima Jinnah Road (formerly Bonus Road). It lies adjacent to the colonial-era Sind Club.[3]
History
The building was intended to serve as Karachi’s town hall, and was designed by Henry Saint Clair Wilkins,[1] who was chosen from among 12 candidates.[4]
The building’s land was purchased at a cost of 2,000 British Indian rupees,[1] which had been donated by WP Andrew of the Scinde Railway, and Sir Frederick Arthur Bartholomew.[1] The total cost of the Hall was about 180,000 rupees, out of which the Government contributed 10,000 rupees, while the rest was paid for by Karachi municipality.[5]
Work commenced in August 1863 and continued until October 1865;[6] construction had not been entirely completed by the time of its inauguration.[4]
In 1877 at Frere Hall, the first attempt was made to form a consistent set of rules of badminton.[7] Following the death of Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere in 1884, the building was renamed in his honour.[8] Frere was a British administrator who was known for promoting economic development in Sindh, as well as for making the Sindhi language the language of administration in Sindh, rather than the Persian language, which had been favoured by the Mughals.
Following the independence of Pakistan, the hall’s library was renamed as Liaquat National Library. The library is one of Karachi’s largest, and houses a collection of more than 70,000 books, including rare and hand-written manuscripts.[3]
The hall’s ceilings were decorated by the world-renowned Pakistani artist Sadequain in the 1980s, with one mural remaining incomplete after his death in 1987.[9] Several other works by Sadequain are found in the hall, and form what is known as the “Galerie Sadequain”.[3]
The hall was closed periodically between 2002 and 2011 due to numerous attempted terrorist attacks on the nearby US consulate,[8] and was not reopened permanently until 2011 when the consulate was relocated to a site further away. It is now directly administered by the Karachi Municipal Corporation, and hosts several festivals.[10]