Khan Market, New Delhi

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 after the partition of India. Khan Market is named in honor of Freedom fighter Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan, (brother of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan), by the first traders who set up shops in the market, in appreciation of his efforts in helping them migrate to India safely during the partition. Nearby is Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi's first apartment complex, built in 1945, and designed by Walter Sykes George and named after the grandfather of this enclave's most famous resident, writer Khushwant Singh. 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, Sundar Nagar, 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 Cushman & Wakefield survey ranked Khan Market as the world's 21st most expensive shopping street.