Kapoor Haveli, Historical residence in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Kapoor Haveli is a five-story residential building in the historic center of Peshawar, Pakistan, that displays jharoka balconies and floral motifs on the exterior facade. The rooms inside extend across multiple levels and connect traditional design elements with the typical structure of a large townhouse from the British colonial period.
The residence was built between 1918 and 1922 as a home for Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor and his family in what was then British India. In the following decades the house became the birthplace of several well-known figures in Indian cinema and remained in family ownership until the 1947 partition.
The residence carries the name of a pre-partition family and displays brickwork with facade decorations that reflect the prosperity of that era. The architecture combines elements of Hindu residential traditions with craftsmanship techniques still recognizable in Peshawar today.
The building is currently involved in a legal dispute over ownership claims and is not open for interior visits. Those wishing to see the house from outside can photograph it from the street and explore the surrounding lanes of the old town.
The house once had more storeys than it does today: the owners demolished its top three floors about two decades ago, after an earthquake opened cracks in the upper section, which sat on a steep mound. The building is now hemmed in by commercial structures.
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