Victoriana, largely in Bangalore

Relics of Empire are common in India.    Many cities, for instance, have "Cantonment" areas, some with parade grounds and other vestiges of the British Raj military effort.   Arriving in Bangalore by rail from Kodai Road,  we alighted at the busy Cantonment station.    An important shopping street, Brigade Road, suggests similar history.

Many more peaceable Victoriana exist around Bangalore.    St Mark's Cathedral, near downtown, was first built in 1808, and now looks  like this:

 
This (stock) photo was clearly not snapped on a Sunday.   On the hot Sunday of our visit all doors and windows were open, and the nave was full of  Church of South India parishioners.  We slipped in near the end of the service, and even got to sing a fine, old, and (for some) tear-jerking Victorian hymn:  Just As I Am Without One Plea.  

Architecturally we could be in England.

Polished plaques dedicated to  (Raj) soldiers are all around.

There must be more than one Sir Walter Scott.

Near St Mark's are the extensive, peaceful, and well-kept Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, designed in Mughal style but also sporting some notable Victoriana.   The promenade might be European;  the flowers are bougainvillea.  

This Crystal Palace-style glass house was built in 1889 for a visit by the Prince of Wales. 

This un-European guardian figure, also in Lal Bagh park, is not to be messed with:

The vivacious young lady second from left dragged one of us into her Sunday-outing-with-family photo.