Delhi was chosen as the site of the park because the city boasted a great historical legacy for such royal activities.
The second Durbar and
Lady Curzon arriving at the
Delhi Durbar, 1903. The second and third Durbars were held at the same location to celebrate the
Coronation of
British Monarchs. The second Durbar was organised for 1 January 1903 to celebrate the
Coronation of King Edward VII.
Lord Curzon, the Viceroy and the chief architect of the show, planned meticulously what was considered an extravagant display of pomp and splendour. Lord Hardinge organised the Durbar with great care and effort ensuring that everything was done with the utmost glitter and pomp since the
King-Emperor,
George V, was to attend. King George V was the first reigning
Monarch of the United Kingdom to attend a Durbar. He was accompanied by
Queen Mary, his
Queen Consort. The King-Emperor made many historical proclamations which paved the way for the present
Edwin Lutyens-designed
New Delhi to be built to the south west of
Shahjahanabad, the last
Mughal city of Delhi. King George V and his Queen sat on golden thrones under a golden umbrella on 11 December 1911 when they proclaimed that the capital of
British India would be shifted from
Calcutta to
Delhi. In 1911, an immense sum of £600,000
stg. was approved for the Durbar and maintenance of the visiting local rulers. An additional £300,000 were supplied by the
Government of India to pay for eighty thousand
Army troops in the parades and security for the event.
The Imperial Hotel in New Delhi, considered a legacy of the colonial times, continues to display pictures of the Durbar in a Coffee Shop named "1911". After the Coronation Durbar, Edwin Lutyens (Sir Edwin from 1918) was authorised by Lord Hardinge to proceed with preparing plans for building New Delhi.
Other uses The
Queen-Empress,
Mary of Teck, bestowed the
Kaisar-i-Hind Medal upon all the governors of the
provinces during the 1911 Durbar at Coronation Park. Following the announcements, the Queen laid the foundation stone for the Viceroy's residence. However, the location was later not found suitable for building the Residency for the
Viceroy since the area was in the flood prone zone of the
Yamuna River. The stone was later shifted to
Raisina Hill. The construction of Viceroy's House (as it was officially called), the present
Rashtrapati Bhavan, was started after
World War I and completed in 1931, when the City of New Delhi was inaugurated. ==Coronation memorial==