If you have visited Shimla and took a walk from Mall road to Viceregal Lodge, Gorton Castle comes on the left side of the road. A magnificent heritage building near Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. Gorton Castle was build in British era and was currently in use as office of Accounting General of Himachal Pradesh. It was very sad to hear that one of the most beautiful Heritage building in Shimla changed into ashes overnight. All the photographs shared in this Photo Journey are clicked after the night, when Gorton Castle caught fire.
It's a big setback to people of Shimla town and heritage lovers. Top two floors of the building have converted into ashes and some of the photographs here would give a clear sense of loss happened.
Gorton Castle is five storey Heritage Building in summer
capital of British India , Shimla, which was established in 1904. This
was designed and constructed in a Gothic style, the foundation of the
building was laid by Sir Swinton Jacob, a renowned British architect. He
served a long term as an executive engineer in the Rajputana state of
Jaipur.
One of the main highlights of Gorton Castle is the 'Rajasthan jaali' work on balconies, which was very well combined with British style architecture. Gorton Castle was also used as Civil Secretariat of the Imperial Government of India.
It's located on a hill adjacent to the road which connects Mall road with Viceregal Lodge or Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha in Shimla. Gorton castle is spread in an area of 400 feet x 100 feet. Gorton Castle is encircled by rosewood like timber blocks which were brought from Andaman Islands. Solid grey Sanjauli stone was used in the construction of the building and a red tile roof, which was replaced by galvanised red iron sheet roof.
Gorton Castle caught fire at around 3am and fire brigade was informed soon after it happened. Fire tenders from Shimla and other surrounding places took quick action along with Army folks. Within few minutes the entire building was under high flames. Some of my friends from Shimla witnessed the sad moment. And there are few videos available on news channels which showed the way Gorton Castle converted into ashes, specially it's top two floors. Fire was brought under control around 10:30am.
It seems that fire started from the top floor of Gorton Castle and then it spread to lower parts as well, especially the second last story. Some of the early witnesses of this tragedy said the fire may have been caused by short-circuting or use of electric heating, either by the night guards or officials, who may have left heaters on while leaving the office. This thought may make you feel worse that carelessness of employees can cause such a disaster. It seems that lot of heritage buildings of Shimla have gutted in winter fires in past two decades, but this incident has been a big shock. Probably because of the fact that Gorton Castle is very well located in the town and many of the folks
Principal AG and DAG officers are shifted to railways building. And whole building will be renovated within in year or so. Renovation initiatives have been started, but it's going to be huge task and not sure how many documents would never be recovered. Wondering how it would impact the normal people of the state, as many of the important files must have been converted into ashes. 
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