

City walk · Delhi, New Delhi · India
1869–1944 · a real person
a dry, vain, funny British architect of the 1930s, proud of his arch and still sore about a hill
I am Edwin Lutyens, and I drew a great deal of what is under your feet. That arch ahead of me carries the names of thousands of men, and I was asked to make grief look like architecture. Then I have to walk home through a city that refuses to stay as tidy as my drawings. Come with me. I want to show you what was here before me, and what has grown over me since.
Delhi · 7 stops · 4.6 km
about 58 min walking, 29 min listening at the stops — going inside is extra · Tap a stop on the map for a preview.
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Best time to walk: Early morning or after 4pm. The India Gate lawns and Kartavya Path have no shade at midday, and Agrasen ki Baoli closes at 5:30pm.
You’re walking this one before anyone at Walk & Tell has. If something looks wrong, tap Report at any stop — we’ll fix it for everyone after you.
A single line across New Delhi, from the great war memorial arch to the circle of shops at its other end. The man who drew much of this capital talks you through the stepwell that was here before him, the giant sundial he had to plan around, and the markets that filled his tidy plan with noise. No puzzles: just a walk and a long, argumentative story. It ends where Delhi still shops, eats and sits out in the evening.
Start here
Hailey Road, Connaught Place
Stand on the lawns facing India Gate, on the Kartavya Path side, with the arch in front of you.
DirectionsBest from stop 1 — the story is told in order. Tap Start here on any stop to begin there instead; the guide will catch you up.
Agrasen Ki Baoli
A 60-metre stepwell with 108 steps dropping into the ground, rebuilt around the 14th century.
Samrat Yantra
“Samrat Yantra, the Supreme Instrument”
The giant masonry sundial at Jantar Mantar, one of thirteen instruments built in 1724 to read the heavens.
Jantar Mantar, New Delhi
“Jantar Mantar”
Jantar Mantar: one of the places New Delhi is known for.
Janpath
“Queensway, Renamed”
The road Lutyens laid out as Queensway, now Janpath, the People's Path, running north to Connaught Place.
Janpath New Mini Market
The busy Janpath market stalls: clothing, home accessories and souvenirs, for locals and travellers alike.
National Charkha Museum
“The Charkha Museum”
A museum of the spinning wheel, holding a five-tonne steel charkha nearly eight metres long.
Rajiv Chowk Central Park
“Central Park, Connaught Place”
The green circle at the centre of Connaught Place, where Delhi sits out in the evening.
The walk passes these without stopping. Add one and the route bends to take it in — the guide has nothing to say about them, so you are on your own there.
Lutyens designed India Gate and the Viceroy's House and planned much of New Delhi, including the axis of Janpath and the geometry the walk follows.

1869–1944
Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944) was the British architect given chief responsibility for planning New Delhi after the capital was moved from Calcutta in 1911. He designed the Viceroy's House, now Rashtrapati Bhavan, completed in 1929, and the All India War Memorial, now India Gate, whose foundation stone was laid in 1921 and which was inaugurated in 1931. He designed sixty-six war memorials in Europe, including the Cenotaph in London. He quarrelled bitterly with his colleague Herbert Baker over the gradient of Raisina Hill, which hid the front of his palace from view. His words here are imagined; the facts of his life are not.
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