Frere Hall

Frere Hall is a historic building in Karachi, Pakistan, from the early British colonial period. It was finished in 1865 and was built to be the town hall of Karachi. Today it is used as an exhibition space and a library, and people come to see its pointed arches and tall corner tower.

The style is called Venetian-Gothic. The walls are made of buff-colored local limestone with bands of white and gray stone, and the roof is green metal. Frere Hall stands in the Saddar area, between Abdullah Haroon Road and Fatima Jinnah Road, next to the old Sind Club, in a part of the city that is home to several consulates.

How was it built?

The architect, Henry Saint Clair Wilkins, was chosen from 12 candidates. The land cost 2,000 rupees, a gift from two men, and the whole hall cost about 180,000 rupees, mostly paid by the Karachi municipality. Building lasted from August 1863 to October 1865, and the hall was not fully finished when it was opened. In 1884, after the death of Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, a British administrator, it was named in his honor.

What happened later?

In 1877 the first try at forming a set of rules for the game of badminton was made at Frere Hall. After Pakistan's independence the library was renamed the Liaquat National Library. It holds more than 70,000 books, including rare handwritten manuscripts. The famous Pakistani artist Sadequain decorated the ceilings in the 1980s, and one mural was left unfinished at his death in 1987. His works here are called the Galerie Sadequain.

On the globe

The model shows a Venetian-Gothic hall with two floors of pointed arches, a green roof and a tall octagonal corner tower. Look for the tower in the corner.