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Arthur Gordon Shoosmith (1888 - 1974), an architect of repute,
and
Sir Edward Lutyen's representative in
India from 1920 to 1931, received the commission of design St. Martin's
Church, essentially for armed forces personnel as it was located in the
military cantonment. He designed the building in 1928, and construction
started in 1929. Fittingly, the foundation stone was laid by the
commander-in-chief, H.E. Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood Bart, GCB, GCMB,
KCSI, DSO, LLD, on the 23rd March, 1929.
Mr. Shoosmith designed a
unique building, sensitive to his own western tradition and also to the
architecture, building materials and climatic conditions in and around Delhi.
3.5 million bricks went into the construction of this building, which
externally looks like a fort, with its buttresses, parapets, straight lines
and few windows. The inside resembles a basilica with its high circular dome
and curved arches reaching to the vaulted roof.
The total length of the
building is 160 feet; the width 75 feet; height to the vault 56 feet; and to
the top of the square Gothic tower 128 feet. The plinth is of stone, so too
the front, pulpit, altar, altar rails and the paving of the narthex and
sanctuary. The nave is a wooden block floor. The west end has a gallery for a
Band instead of an Organ. The cost of construction in 1931 was £ (UK)
17,000/-.
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