Tale of Colonial India’s rly refreshment rooms

The railway in India helped Indians and Europeans travel much more extensively than they were accustomed to in the pre-railway era. It also brought forth several problems that the government needed to solve, the primary being that of the consumption of food during travel.

- Chinmay Damle

One of the first to demand Refreshment Rooms in India was William Walker, who, using the nom de plume Tom Cringle, wrote a letter in a Bombay newspaper on October 7, 1862, and asked railway companies to start hotels on or near railway stations. He complained that over the “whole range of stations, from Bombay, to Julgaum (Pls confirm the name), there was nota single place where a modest woman could go in to partake of refreshments or to enjoy any toilette convenience”.

Railway companies in India were cautious in entering the hotel business on their account because British railway companies were criticised in Britain for enlarging the scope of their business.

Refreshment Rooms were established after the late 1850s at most of the important Indian stations. These public spaces were reserved for Europeans, and a few decades later, separate Refreshment Rooms were built for Hindu and Muslim travellers at some railway stations. Information given in several travel guides published between 1865 and 1930 indicates that they were more popular in towns where conventional hotels and restaurants were few or nonexistent.

The Refreshment Rooms were managed by the catering departments of the respective railway companies, which granted the operating and catering to firms like Kellner’s, Sorabjee’s, or Brandon's.

In 1873, Lord Hobart, Governor of Madras, Lady Hobart, and Colonel and Mrs Silver visited Poona by train on their way back to Madras from Delhi. They were accompanied by His Excellency’s staff and Dr Michael Cudmore Furnell, his doctor. They alighted at Kirke and visited the Governor's House in Ganeshkhind. Furnell had expected it to be a sort of oriental palace, such as one read of in Arabian Nights; a place of “barbaric splendour, gold and precious stones”.