The Imperial

The Imperial

Twenty-four royal palms line the drive to The Imperial's porch, planted before New Delhi had a skyline to speak of, and little about the hotel behind them has changed since Lord Willingdon opened it in 1936. This is where Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah once sat across from Mountbatten arguing over the shape of a country about to split, and the pillared verandahs where those conversations happened are still in daily use, not roped off as a museum piece. Spread across eight acres on Janpath, the property holds more than 5,000 original 17th- and 18th-century artworks through its corridors and rooms, a collection no other hotel in the city comes close to matching. The 235 rooms, held to just three low-rise floors, run from Imperial King Rooms at a generous 301 square feet to the 549-square-foot Heritage King Suite, each with a mini bar, blackout blinds and a proper desk. The 44,000-square-foot spa works with Kerala-trained therapists and Ayurvedic consultation rather than a generic treatment menu, and the mosaic-tiled pool moves at the pace of an afternoon meant for staying put. Guests land 30 minutes from the airport into a district thick with Jantar Mantar, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and Parliament, all reachable on foot. Anyone chasing glass-tower views or minimalist white rooms will find neither here; the pull is weight of history, not height of building, and travellers after brand-new finishes should look elsewhere. Pets are not permitted, and extra beds and airport transfers are arranged directly with the hotel. What stays with you after checkout is not the amenity list but the sense of having slept inside a document. The Imperial has hosted partition-era statesmen and holds more than 5,000 period artworks since 1936, an archive no other Delhi hotel matches. Its 235 rooms, eight-acre grounds and 44,000-square-foot spa suit history lovers more than glass-tower minimalists.