While researching my biography of Sir Herbert Baker I had the great pleasure of gaining access to his drawings in the RIBA’s collection. Unlike Lutyens (most of whose drawings were burnt in the 1940’s), there are a huge number of Baker’s drawings which survive. These include roll upon roll of his drawings for both the Secretariat Buildings and the Indian Parliament Buildings in New Delhi.
They convey the scale of the task which he and his team undertook in designing a building which was being constructed on the other side of the world during the 1920’s. Every detail of the buildings was worked out in London and drawn at various scales from around 1:50 up to full size. The drawings were then sent, by steamer, to India where the detailed design would be compared to the project cost plan before issuing to site. Baker had a single site architect representing him in Delhi throughout the process who was responsible for communication and clarification as well as (quite incredibly) quality control across the vast building site.
Baker himself would visit site every winter for several months, usually accompanied by one or two assistant architects, during which period he would continue to design outstanding elements, obtain agreement to his proposals from the Viceroy and his committee directly, set standards on site and assist the resident engineer with the procurement of skilled workmen, often persuading craftsmen whom he had worked with previously in South Africa to move to India to help, as well as encouraging the contribution of native artists.
The drawings give a flavour of this task which no description could achieve – often ten or twelve feet long, showing section after section, detail after detail with every stone course marked and cross-referenced. The quality of the draftsmanship is quite outstanding as circular staircases are cut in section, complex curving coffering drawn in two dimensions and columns and arches perfectly proportioned. The satisfaction which his team obviously derived from the process of drawing all this by hand simply sings from one astonishing drawing after another.
My biography of Sir Herbert Baker “Architect to the British Empire” was published in November 2021. If you don’t want to miss out on further blogs then please follow me on johngooldstewart.com
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John Stewart 