Restoring the Lalbagh Hammam: Seeing it as it was

During the 17th century, when the Buriganga river veined through Dhaka, the Lalbagh Fort – formerly Fort Aurangabad – stood grandly at the bank of Buriganga, looking over the bustling city. 

Centuries later, much of its grandeur, along with its history, wore off. Considered a Heritage site by the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh, restoration had become unavoidable. 

In 1968, the Pakistan government tried to restore the site the best they could, but they ended up altering much of it unknowingly. Plaster, concrete and rods replaced the sandstone tiles, and cement on the limestone foundation was causing the structure to crumble from within. 

The restored Hammam Khana and the Diwan-i-Am look like as it was back then. Photo: Noor A Alam

Prior to this, the British government used the Fort as a barrack and to store ammunition. They boarded up the bright and airy halls with colonial style doors and windows. To make matters worse, they implemented their own contemporary architectural designs. 

Through the initiative of  Architect Khandakar Mahfuz Alam Sumon, Amriuzzaman Palash and Khairul Bashar Swapan of the 'Heritage Cell' of the Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh, a new restoration project was recently concluded. Funded by the US Department of State's Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) programme, the Diwan-i-Am (the Mughal viceroy/subehdar's residence and court) and the Hammam Khana (bathhouse) were successfully restored. 

The project was helmed by architect Dr Abu Sayeed M Ahmed, Professor at the University of Asia Pacific. Dr AKM Shahnawaz, Professor of the Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University, provided historical background, and Dr TMJ Nilan Cooray, Life Member of Royal Academy Society, Sri Lanka, served as a consultant. 

Restoration began in October 2020, and was completed on 22 March of this year. The progress was slow during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the pace picked up after.

A team of architects, engineers and archaeological experts collaborated together to restore what different regimes had done to the Hammam Khana and the Diwan-i-Am. These two sections had been turned into a museum, significantly undermining their own historical value. 

Illustration: Augustin Anjan Byapari

Architect and artist Augustin Anjan Byapari was tasked with reimagining the Hammam Khana and Diwan-i-Am, and painting them. The illustrations are in the centre of the bathhouse.

"Initially it was hypothesised that the Hammam Khana was for Mughal women. I painted women bathing and conversing here at first, but they later had to be changed to male figures because there was no concrete historical data saying women bathed there; it's only a hypothesis. My wife and partner, architect Afrina Islam, helped me a lot as well. I tried to portray the Hammam and the Hawa Mahal (the second floor) as creatively as I could imagine, but of course I had to study the halls thoroughly before that," said Anjan.

The restoration process

'Restorting, Retrofitting and 3D Architectural Documentation of Historical Mughal Hammam of Lalbagh Fort' was the project's name. A budget of total $1,85,934 (approx Tk2 crore) was allotted for it by the US Embassy in Dhaka. 

"In 1963, the Pakistan government documented everything they found. We collected those drawings and literature from the archaeology department, as the first step. Then we studied Hammams from around the world, like the ones in India and Pakistan. We identified the typical features of a Hammam," said Abu Sayeed. 

2D drawings had to be made thereafter. Imamur Architects, an architectural firm, made extensive 2D drawings of the entire compound. Ornamentation on the floor, the ceilings and the ornate motifs were all carefully documented before any alteration was made. 

Cement screenings on arched windows on the second floor of the Diwan-i-Am were removed. Photo: Noor A Alam

Drone imaging and photography were combined with architectural plannings to reveal where the structure needed intervention. 

Once every nook and cranny was documented, the structural analysis phase began. The structure's bricks' compressive strength, the wall's capacity to withstand load from above if water would penetrate the roofs, cracks on the retrofitted mosaic floor, how the ceiling can get deformed from visitors walking on the floor above, and chemical analysis of the materials were all done by various organisations, primarily Buet. 

These researches dictated which direction the conservation would go. The test results from the labs were all positive. Hairline fractures, however, had formed on the mosaic floors fitted in the 1968 restoration. But that was no reason for concern since the cracks did not reach the original sandstone flooring. 

Layers of bricks were sequentially laid down on the second floor in order to simulate pressure of people walking above, and to test if there was a risk of the ceiling collapsing. Extremely insignificant deformation in the results proved that the second floor was still fit to let in 191 people at a time. 

Chemical analysis helped to find out the chemical composition of the original building materials. This allowed the team to decide which new material could be used to restore the structure without harming the chun (lime) and surkhi (powdered bricks).

"Lime and surkhi require contact with water to stay strong over time. They covered the original layers with cement and cement doesn't allow water through," explained Abu Sayeed. 

Then began the planning of how to restore and retrofit necessary changes. The plaster from the walls, the mosaic on the floor and the unfitting tiles inside the Hammam had to be removed. 

Illustration: Augustin Anjan Byapari

Several doors, installed in the 1960s by the British colonists, were replaced with doors that reflect Mughal style. Many of the entry points were sealed using cement screening; these were taken down. The original spiralling stairwell was sealed entirely and single-flight staircases were installed in its place. These had to go as well. 

The second floor, arguably the grandest area in the entire Lalbagh fort, was made into a museum. Non-Mughal carpets were hanged. The elegant eastern and western pillars and arches on the second floor – that allowed a vantage point on the entire fort – were covered up with cement screenings and carpets. The focus of the restoration was to get rid of all of these modifications and restore it to its former glory.

10-inch plaster came off the walls in the Diwan-i-Am, revealing the original walls. Sealed up niches (recesses) in the walls were also recovered. 

"A lot of the things exhibited in the museum were not of Mughal origins. So we got rid of them. In fact, if we have to make a museum, we'll show original Mughal artefacts. We proposed to use the barracks as a museum beside a conference hall," said Abu Sayeed.

The original spiralling stairwell steps have been covered with planks so that walking on them would not gradually wear away the original steps. 

Brick and stone motifs (ornamentation) around the structure were restored, they were badly damaged. Artisans did an outstanding job to restore the original motifs. 

Plaster was removed from the walls of the Hammam to reveal the original bricks used by the Mughal. Photo: Noor A Alam

Some of the niches and doors were sealed in the Hammam. The oculus (hole in the ceiling) – which lets light in from above – was bored up. 

"The Hammam is a bathhouse. It has to be private in nature. They originally had an oculus. In the previous restoration the oculus closed off. But we reopened it," said Abu Sayeed.

Before all of the proposed plans could be executed, funding ran thin. Fortunately, most of the work was done before that happened. For example, if the original sandstone floor were to be brought back, they had to be imported. So, the mosaic flooring is temporarily being left there. 

The concrete screenings that were supposed to be replaced by marble screenings could not be done either. But they are covered in easily removable glass panes. Should funding come again, the remaining work can resume. 

The Hammam Khana and Diwan-i-Am have returned to their original pinkish-red hue. With the screenings and doors out of the way, the smooth red hue on the outside can take one back to imagine how it was then.