Bristol Hotel: A Haunting Remnant of the Old, Glittering Karachi

-By Abeera Akhtar

Courtesy of Archive150

The building in this picture was the setting for most of the horror stories in my seven year old mind. It was also the view from my room in my grandparents’ house. I would listen in awe as my friend talked about the ghosts that she had seen lurking there in the dark of the night. I would snap the curtains shut at night so I wouldn’t have to stare at that abandoned dwelling. I didn’t know much about it back then. My dada (paternal grandfather) told me it was called Bristol Hotel and that it was constructed pre-partition. My imagination added another detail; I assumed it was haunted.

A new apartment building soon rose from the ground, blocked my view and I forgot about this place until I passed by it one day. I had always viewed it from afar. Walking alongside it felt strange and exciting. I wish I could write about everything that I noticed back then. I wish I could give details about why this haunted house suddenly seemed to be a place of beauty. But my casual walk outside the hotel took place nearly six years ago and the faint web of my memory no longer has that incident entangled in its mesh. I do remember looking at the hotel and thinking that Bristol Hotel probably holds the record for having the most windows. The whole building was speckled with them. I also recall an old man watering the daisies in the enormous green garden; which I’m sure is only a dull shadow of its former self. The building is a 100 year old forgotten piece of art, which sits there close to Karachi Cantt, firmly footed like a mountain with the grace, humility and melancholy of an Emperor who no longer has his throne.
Today, I googled Bristol Hotel. The results made me run to father to ask if he knew the history of this place. He didn’t. So I read it out to him.

“For those who may remember the Bristol Hotel Karachi was constructed by a Welshman in 1910 near the Cantonment Railway Station-Karachi, parallel to the rail tracks between Karachi Cantt and Karachi City Railway Station. It is in close proximity to the current location of the British Council. Initially it was a tavern & bistro for the affluent ones, mostly the high echelons and army officials under the British Raj of early 1900s. The hotel was also the venue of the most talked about New Year parties, May Queen Ball and wedding parties and became the most popular place of Kolachi or Kurracchee…”

I learnt that Bristol Hotel’s popularity raged on in the fifties as well, when the Welshman’s son Grout, left for UK and sold it to Mr. Rizvi; a Pakistani income tax officer in 1960.

“Mr. Rizvi maintained the grandeur of Bristol Hotel, its bar and particularly its cuisine, which was probably the best in Karachi attracting people from far and wide. The New Year Parties and May Queen Balls continued with the same fervor and glamour. During the sixties the price of NYP entry for a couple was Rs.300 – a small fortune in those days. Bristol continued to attract affluent Karachi-ites for its cuisine, large rooms, lush green lawns with Saturday Night Discos and the Nightclub  The Bristol Hotel breathed its last when it was attacked by some dacoits and Mr. Rizvi suffered injuries in 1994. The attack re-occurred later and within six months Mr Rizvi was virtually forced to call it quits. The building of the hotel, however, remains as a home now.”  (Picture and details courtesy of Mr Naveed Riaz.)

 

 

The haunted building of my childhood now has a story. The hotel was once a jewel in Karachi’s skyline, but now it is a silent observer, a dethroned king. I can imagine the hotel bustling with people, walking up the carved balusters, admiring the beautiful arcading, marveling at the taste of the amazing cuisine. Even though, I have never seen the inside of the Hotel, I can still picture its glittering chandeliers, its thick, bright, colorful, carpets and regal furniture. I can picture its once lush green lawns, a busy driveway and a stone building standing proud in all its grandeur.

Rumor has it that Quaid-e-Azam also dined there during the hotels’ glory days.

Soon after my discovery of the past of this hotel, my mom called out to me while watching television. Apparently, this once bustling hotel is now a setting for soap operas and period dramas. My curiosity regarding the interior of the hotel was satisfied a little after watching TV. However, these soaps are confined to the bedrooms. The entrance which my nana (maternal grandfather) once described to be “palatial” still just exists in my imagination. However, I intend to find out what the interior looks like, I WILL find out what the interior looks like. A visit to Bristol Hotel is long overdue.

There was an incident that prompted me to fetch the memory of this hotel from the recesses of my brain where it was stored. I was visiting Saddar’s electronic market one day and as we got out of the car, my dad stared at the building in front of us; Hotel Jabees. His voice was heavy with nostalgia when he talked about how that building once towered over all the others in Karachi. I was amused since the hotel only had 8 floors! There were no buildings around it back then and it stood out like no other. It was the most expensive hotel in Karachi once upon a time. And now it’s no longer a grand building. It’s just another old building now, just a low budget hotel. It too, rose and fell.

I came home and googled Hotel Jabees. I wanted to see a picture of it in its glory days. There wasn’t a single picture on the internet. No pictures from the days gone by, no picture of its present state. Yet, when I talked to the elders in my family, they remembered this place well. Our generation wouldn’t know about it except by word of mouth. Its story could be so easily lost. That thought depressed me. That’s when I remembered Bristol Hotel. The details which I dug up on Bristol Hotel put a smile across my face. The history of this building is preserved; it is there to astonish others and educate them about a very different Karachi, a very different Pakistan. I wish the same can be said about the other numerous historical jewels in our ever evolving city.