In the thick of the bustling streets of Jaipur’s jewel marketplace famously known as Johri Bazaar, anchors an elegant work of architecture from the yesteryears. Timeless, resplendent and observant of the circumambient cacophony that engulfs it, the 3-storey Lal Haveli (red mansion) coated in limestone and drenched in bright terracotta, towers over the bazaar as a reminder of 19th-century India. A golden period when homes were designed to nurture large joint families residing around a courtyard that acted as a veritable town square for gatherings and festivities. The hallways were always alive as occupants decked in their ethnic best traversed the passages, generation after generation, until the world outside came beckoning for change and dynasties were put to rest.
But the extravagant history of one haveli was brought to life in all its splendour, not as a mansion as it once was but as an exquisite boutique hotel called THE JOHRI (Hindi translation for the jeweller). The hotel gives an insight into a bygone era of city living to a new generation of travellers; one that they have read so much about and can finally experience first hand. What’s also special about this hotel is that it resonates with the renaissance of Jaipur’s ‘Old walled city’, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019.
The Lal Haveli is an ancestral property of Mr Sudhanshu Kasliwal, and was owned by his ancestor Fauzdar Dhanna Lal Ji Kasliwal in the 19th century. Mr Sudhanshu set off on a 9-year long journey to restore the family property, which later transformed into the designer boutique hotel it is today, with the expertise of New York-based designer Naina Shah (owner of Aditiany Inc., a couture embroidery business based out of New York & Mumbai).
