Husainabad Clock Tower

The Husainabad Clock Tower was built in 1881 by Nawab Nasir-ud-Din Haider to commemorate the arrival of Sir George Couper, the first Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces. The Romanesque-Mughal hybrid tower stands 67 metres (221 feet) tall — at the time of its construction, the tallest clock tower in India. The four-faced clock — manufactured in London by Ludgate Hill — has dials 4 metres in diameter, with the pendulum hanging 4.3 metres long; the bell still strikes the hours. The tower sits in the Hussainabad complex alongside the Chota Imambara, the Rumi Darwaza, and the Husainabad Picture Gallery (a small museum holding life-size paintings of the Awadh nawabs). The architectural style mixes London's Big Ben (the dial design and Gothic spire) with Indian-Mughal motifs in the lower stages — a typical late-19th-century colonial-Indian hybrid. The tower itself is not open to the interior. The plaza around it is the staging point for the Hussainabad illumination during Muharram, when the entire complex including the clock tower is festooned with thousands of small lamps. Combine with the Chota Imambara and Picture Gallery for a full Hussainabad walking tour.