Gole Market

Gole Market or Gol Market is a neighborhood in the heart of New Delhi, India built within a traffic roundabout by Edwin Lutyens in 1921. It is one of New Delhi's oldest surviving colonial markets and is considered an architecturally significant structure. The dodecagonal market was built in the axis planned by Edwin Lutyens as part of New Delhi's layout. Peshwa Road, Ramakrishna Asram Road, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, and Bhai Veer Singh Road are four radial roads leading from the market.HistoryThe octagonal market, designed by Edwin Lutyens, was built in 1921 as an important part of a wider development plan. In the years that followed, the Connaught Place shopping area was built adjacent to it, catering to the daily needs of thousands of government employees living in nearby residential areas built for them in 1925. These employees worked at the nearby Secretariat Building, as most government offices had relocated from Old Delhi a decade before the new capital had been inaugurated in 1931. Many of the employees were brought into the new capital from distant parts of India, including the Bengal Presidency and Madras Presidency.After the partition of India, noted painter B.C. Sanyal and his wife Snehlata, a ghazal singer and actress moved to Gole Market. Their "refugee studio" became a hub for artists and students in New Delhi, and was later known as Gallery 26. The studio later gave rise to the Delhi Shilpi Chakra, which Sanyal founded with several of her artist friends. This organisation had an important influence on the contemporary art of North India.