Frere-Hall

Frere Hall

It is a building in Karachi, where early Britishers ruled and made their settlements in Sindh. This Hall was completed in 1865 and set as an exhibition hall, event place, and library. Frere Hall is in Central Karachi, Saddar Town. In the locality of Civil lines. At the same time, that is a shelter to many embassies, located between Abdullah Haroon Road and Fatima Jinnah Road. It lies next to the colony, the Sindh club.It is a building in Karachi, where early Britishers ruled and made their settlements in Sindh. This Hall was completed in 1865 and set as an exhibition hall, event place, and library. Frere Hall is in Central Karachi, Saddar Town. In the locality of Civil lines. At the same time, that is a shelter to many embassies, located between Abdullah Haroon Road and Fatima Jinnah Road. It lies next to the colony, the Sindh club.

History

Henry Saint Clair Wilkins designed the building. He bought the building’s land for 2,000 British Indian Rupees, which had been given by WP Andrew of the Sindh Railway and Sir Frederick Arthur Bartholomew. The Government provides 10,000 rupees, out of Hall’s total price, about 180,000 rupees, while the rest was paid for by Karachi town.

Construction

The construction started in August 1863 and was completed in October 1865. In 1884, the building was renamed in honour of Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere after his death. He was an administrator who did economic development in Sindh and made the Sindhi language the management language in Sindh. After the independence of Pakistan, Hall’s library was renamed Liaquat National Library. It is one of Karachi’s most important libraries, containing around 70,000 books, including old-hand written manuscripts. The Hall’s ceilings were decorated by a world-famous Pakistani artist, Sadequain, in the 1980s. Many other works found in the Hall were named “Gallery Sadequain.”

Exhibition Area

Several stone busts, including King Edward, a gift from local Parsi philanthropist Seth Edulji Dinshaw, are also housed in Frere Hall. Sir Charles Pritchard, a retired Commissioner of Sindh, also houses oil paintings in Frere Hall. Frere Hall is still open to the public as of 2018 and is still one of the most favourite attractions for tourism because of its remarkable architecture and its link with British rule in the sub-continent.