Before wristwatches and smartphones, time in Delhi moved to the rhythm of water clocks and the Sun.
Mentions of water clocks date back to the 17th century during Shah Jahan’s rule. Later, in the 18th century, the famous Jantar Mantar was built to use the Sun’s position to read time.
Sohail Hashmi, writer and heritage activist, explained how drums of water were used to track time. “A vessel filled with water was used to float a smaller perforated vessel placed in the Red Fort. When it sank completely — which it did so every three hours — it marked one-eighth of the day, known as a ‘prahar.’ At this moment, drums would be beaten to declare the time.”
A century later, “water clocks” were replaced by the grand astronomical instruments of Jantar Mantar, which mapped time through celestial movements.
Then came the British, bringing with them the chime of mechanical clocks and the rise of the “ghantaghars” — majestic clock towers that stood like sentinels, their bells marking the pulse of the city. But time has not been kind to these towers. Today, these once-majestic structures stand forgotten, rusting away amid the city’s ever-changing landscape.
One of Delhi’s oldest clock towers stood before the Town Hall in Chandni Chowk, once the heart of the city’s civic life. The Town Hall was the office of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for decades, before their offices were shifted to Minto Road in 2011.
According to Sanjeev Kumar Singh, an executive engineer affiliated with the heritage cell of MCD, the clock tower was built in 1868 and originally named Northbrook Tower after the then-Viceroy Thomas Northbrook. However, in 1951, tragedy struck — the tower’s upper storey collapsed, killing several people. Declared structurally unsafe, it was demolished by 1955.
Another iconic clock tower of Delhi stands near the Delhi University’s North Campus; but today, it is completely in ruins. It once served as the centre of a busy vegetable market. Its official name, as a board indicates, is “Ram Roop Tower”, named after its commissioner. It was built in 1941.
“The original vegetable market was in Daryaganj, which then came to Kamla Nagar and finally shifted to Azadpur,” Hashmi said.
Over 80 feet tall, the clock tower stands in sharp architectural contrast to the area, its white walls now bearing the stains of time and dust from Metro construction in front of it. The clock has not been working for six months, locals said.
Auto driver Arup Kumar, recalling its hourly chimes, said: “Some locals have written to the PWD (Public Works Department) to fix it, but no one has come yet.”
During HT’s visit, one of the four clock faces was missing altogether. The clock tower is now maintained by the PWD, but complaints on inaccurate time have gone unheard, an official of the department said.
The Hari Nagar Ghantaghar, in contrast to the first two, is a quieter presence, as if it refuses to scream its existence amid the current landscape. Built in 1940 by Diwan Swarup Lal and named after his father, Diwan Hari, the tower once served as a landmark for the growing colonies of West Delhi. The structure is currently maintained by his son, Shyam Gopal, and his family.
With light green walls and red borders, the clock now stands in quiet isolation as its base forms a roundabout for passing traffic. The structure’s once-grand mechanical clocks have been replaced with digital ones, which, have stopped working. “We imported expensive mechanical clocks, but when they stopped working, we couldn’t find anyone to fix them. We replaced them with digital ones,” said Gopal.
This structure near the New Delhi Railway Station tells a disjointed story of time — of its four faces, one has stopped, another runs over three hours late, and a third lags by five minutes. Only one remains accurate. Lakhwir Singh, president of the Kamala Market Association, said, “It was built around 1950-1952, the same time when the market was established and named after Kamala Nehru. It is under MCD and was repaired three months ago.
Despite the repairs, the bells remain unreliable. Mohammad Ali, a shop worker nearby, said: “It’s erratic. Sometimes, when it is 8am, the bell will ring four times. Then at noon, it may sound eight or nine times.”
The best-preserved clock tower in Delhi lies inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The clock tower – classified as a heritage building – was built in 1925 by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
It is currently used as the reception for the Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex (RBMC).
The 23m, square-shaped white structure features an extended tower with four clock faces. Restoration was undertaken by the IIT-Delhi, in 2015.
Unlike its counterparts across the city, this clock still ticks in sync with time
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