Haveli Sujan Singh, Rawalpindi: The 1893 Mansion in Bhabra Bazaar

Sujan Singh Haveli is a four-storey mansion in Bhabra Bazaar, in the old city of Rawalpindi, built in 1893 for Rai Bahadur Sujan Singh, a rich timber merchant. In its day it had 45 rooms, peacocks in the courtyards and, by most accounts, a pet tiger in the corridors. Today it is in poor condition and has no regular public opening, so for most visitors it is a building to admire from the lane, with its carved entrance door the best detail you can see up close.

This guide covers the family who built it, what made the house famous, what happened to it after 1947, the stalled restoration plans, and how to see it. For the bazaar around it, see our separate guide to Bhabra Bazaar.

Who was Sujan Singh?

Rai Bahadur Sujan Singh was a timber merchant and businessman, one of the wealthiest men in late 19th-century Rawalpindi. A 2014 Dawn report described his family as major benefactors of the city, paying for gardens, temples, libraries and the Lansdowne Institute. At Partition in 1947 the family left for Delhi.

Why is Sujan Singh Haveli famous?

Partly for its size and partly for the stories. According to Wikipedia, peacocks danced in the courtyards, musicians lived in the house and played in the evenings, and a pet tiger was kept that regularly walked the corridors. Water reached the house through some thirty connected lines. We cannot verify the tiger beyond these accounts, but it is the story most often told about the place.

The building itself justifies the reputation. It is built of brick and timber in what is usually called a Sikh style, with Mughal and British touches. Inside, a curved staircase once ran from the ground floor to the fourth, and the carved wooden ceiling panels used Central Asian patterns of the kind found in the Sethi Mohalla houses of Peshawar. Dawn's 2014 report also mentions English tiled floors.

What can you still see?

A detailed account in The News on Sunday in September 2025 lists the features that survive:

• The main door, with six carved panels: Shiva with Parvati and the bull Nandi on the right leaf, Krishna with Radha on the left, and peacocks and parrots among floral scrolls on the others.
• Sitting platforms on either side of the entrance.
• A bridge joining two parts of the house, used by the women and elders of the family.
• The central courtyard, the centre of household life.
• A square tower on the fourth storey, once with a view across the city.
• Balconies and carved windows facing the lane.

The same writer found the ground floor in comparatively good condition and the upper storeys crumbling brick by brick.

What happened to the haveli after Partition?

After the family left, the authorities housed Kashmiri refugees in the building. Much of the carved woodwork was destroyed during the decades they lived there; Dawn reported that they were moved out in 1980.

In 2006 the politician Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, who had secured majority ownership, handed custody to Fatima Jinnah Women University. In 2014 the National College of Arts took over its management for three years, planning to survey the building, set up a museum and run a field school in conservation with Boston Architectural College.

Is Sujan Singh Haveli being restored?

There have been several plans, none finished. In March 2021 Dawn reported that the Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation had allocated Rs104 million to rehabilitate the haveli under the supervision of the Walled City of Lahore Authority, with a rooftop café and the restoration of seven temples around it, alongside an Rs80 million food street project for Bhabra Bazaar. In December 2023 the Punjab government again announced it would turn the haveli into a food court, museum and art gallery, with the same Rs104 million figure and no completion date.

By September 2025 The News was still describing the building as decaying and arguing that it should become the Rawalpindi City Museum. We found nothing to show that work had been completed as of 2026. If you read that it has reopened, check a recent news report before going on that basis.

How to see the haveli

The haveli is in the lanes of Bhabra Bazaar, which runs off Murree Road behind Raja Bazaar. The easiest approach is on foot from Raja Bazaar or from the Murree Road side; the Metro Bus stops along Murree Road, such as Liaquat Bagh, put you within walking distance.

1. Go in daylight, ideally on a weekday morning before the lanes fill up.
2. Ask a shopkeeper for the haveli if your map struggles in the narrow lanes.
3. Look up. The balconies, windows and tower are what you can photograph from the street.
4. Do not climb in. Parts of the upper floors are unsafe, and the building is under university custody, so enter only if someone in charge invites you.

Our guide to Raja Bazaar and our piece on Rawalpindi's old names and old city fit well with this stop.

Is it worth the trip?

It is worth half an hour if you are already in the old city, and it is one of the few buildings that shows how grand Rawalpindi's merchant houses once were. It is not worth a special journey if you expect to go inside. Combine it with the bazaars and a plate of something from our guide to the best food in Rawalpindi, and if you like this kind of building, the painted Bedi Mahal in Kallar Syedan is a good half-day trip out of the city. More ideas are on our experiences page.

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