Khan Market, is a shopping district and retail market in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

, India. It was established in 1951 by the newly constituted Republic of India's Rehabilitation Ministry to give economic opportunities to refugees of the Partition of India, especially those from the

North West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

(NWFP), now

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

, a province in Pakistan. Many such refugees had arrived in the Delhi region. It is named after Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, also known as Dr. Khan Sahib, who was the Chief Minister of NWFP from 1945 to 1947, and who had helped many refugees to escape without harm. Khan was the elder brother of the Pashtun- and Indian-freedom activist Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan ("Frontier Gandhi"). In 2019, Khan Market was rated as the world's 20th most expensive commercial street by

Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield plc is a global commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, with revenues ...

History

Established in 1951, the U-shaped, double-storey market complex originally had 154 shops and 74 flats on the first floor for shopkeepers. Many of these shops were allocated as seed land to immigrants from the

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followi ...

after the partition of India, Khan Market is named in honor of Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan , a

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

political and spiritual leader. Nearby is Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi's first apartment complex, built in 1945, and designed by

Walter Sykes George Walter Sykes George CBE, FRIBA, ARCA, FIIA, FIFA (1881–1962) was an English architect active in India during the first half of the 20th century, most known for being part of the team of architects who designed New Delhi, the new capital of In ...

and named after the grandfather of this enclave's most famous resident, writer

Khushwant Singh Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...

. George also designed, the Ambassador Hotel next door, built in 1945 in a mix of British and Art Deco style. The building is now a heritage property and the hotel has been taken over by the Taj Vivanta chain. Until the 1980s, all the flats on the first floor continued to serve as homes. Neighbourhood grocery stores and middle-class shops existed in the middle lane, despite the fact it catered most up to upmarket

Golf Links A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. Links courses are generally built on sandy coastland that offers a firmer playing surface than parkland and heathland courses. The word "links" comes via the Scots langu ...

Sundar Nagar Sundar Nagar (also spelled as Sundernagar) is a town and a municipal council in Mandi district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Formerly it was a princely state, known as Suket. History Sunder Nagar was formerly the seat of pri ...

, and diplomatic crowd from Chanakyapuri. Gradually, the real estate boom and expanding families of the first generation of occupants forced many families to move out. Thus these homes were sold and started being converted into shops. By the 2010s, only a few families were living in these two-room flats. A 2011

survey ranked Khan Market as the world's 21st most expensive shopping street.

Overview

Today it has grown to become one of the most expensive commercial real estate locations in the city. It has a wide variety of stores, including modern showrooms of most of well-known brands, silver jewellery stores,

delicatessen Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...

s, bookstores, paints and hardware stores, electronics, kitchenware, and fabric stores mingle with some of the better restaurants. It is also famous for food including

kebabs Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...

and gol guppe (a type of popular street food) and a retail market for lighting fixtures on the ground floor. There are several bookstores in the marketKhan Market
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Location

Khan Market Station entrance and Ambassador Hotel, New Delhi

Khan Market is almost in the heart of the city, close to

India Gate The India Gate (formerly known as the All India War Memorial) is a war memorial located near the Rajpath on the eastern edge of the "ceremonial axis" of New Delhi, formerly called duty path. It stands as a memorial to 84,000 soldiers of the B ...

. It is surrounded by residential complexes — government owned and private — including Golf Links, Lodhi Estate, Shahjahan Road, Pandara Road, Rabindra Nagar and Sujan Singh Park. Its environs are home to a significant number of bureaucrats from the central government (including some MPs from both the houses), and famous people like the satirist

. It is one of the greenest pockets of the city, very close to the famed Lodhi Gardens. Also in proximity are the India International Centre, the India Habitat Centre, offices of the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

, and other organizations. Nearby the Khan Market are popular schools such as Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and The Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School.

Transport

It is serviced by the

Khan Market Khan Market, is a shopping district and retail market in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1951 by the newly constituted Republic of India's Rehabilitation Ministry to give economic opportunities to refugees of the Partition of India, es ...

underground station of the

Delhi Metro The Delhi Metro is a mass rapid transit (MRT) system serving Delhi and its satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Bahadurgarh and Ballabhgarh, in the National Capital Region of India. The network consists of 10 colou ...

( Violet Line), which lies in front of the Taj Vivanta Hotel. There are four exits of the metro station namely Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 3 and Gate 4. The exit at Gate 4 leads to Khan Market.

References

External links

Khan Market.com

Khan Market

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