The handsome Residency building, originally constructed around 1885, burnt to the ground in 1998 and was then rebuilt according to the original plan in 2004. Today this building houses the Jammu and Kashmir Government Handicrafts Emporium.
On either side of the porch and flight of steps leading up to the entrance, one can see the arched crawl space that allowed for the floodwaters from the Jhelum to swirl around the structure without unduly damaging it.
There are two gatehouses on the extreme left and right as one faces this attractive building, built to impress but not to impose. One can easily imagine carriages entering through the large arches of these gatehouses and sweeping up the path to stop at the foot of the steps, women alighting in elegant gowns and gentlemen in their tailcoats and top hats. The Residency gives a real feel of the lift of the British in Kashmir.
The western gateway is a rectangular, two-storied structure, while the eastern gateway is a single-storied structure. The main gateway also housed staff members of the Residency, and the Britsh would have had a large and impressive household staff.
A tall gothic arch marks the central gateway, large enough to allow a carriage to pass through. Wooden bands accentuate the horizontal lines of this building. The walls are of burnt brick masonry in lime mortar with horizontal wooden bearings. The windows are pointed arches with extremely decorative wooden frames. However, these gatehouses are in a state of deterioration.
Within the building, on the right side of the ground floor, is a raised area - perhaps directly copied from the original - which could have been used either as a dance floor or for the placement of a musical band. The whole building was constructed with British metric bricks 9 x 4 x 3 inches in size, as opposed to Maharaji bricks with which most traditional Kashmiri homes were constructed.
On the first floor, at the rear of the building, a broad verandah overlooks the Jhelum. What is striking here is that the railings and pillars of this verandah, though made of deodar wood, are unusually stained a deep brown - known as ambar. This was a dark polish introduced by the British to Kashmir, made of fish glue and copper sulphate combined with either animal, mineral or vegetable dyes to give it a distinctive dark brown colour. Usually, all other woodwork in the Valley is polished with a rich russet tone, Rogan polish on deodar wood1.
1 An Architectural Legacy by Feisal Alkazi, 136-139.