The entrance from Gate No. 1, into our once “Gentlemen Only” Members Club, inherited a pair of Cannons as part of the estate of Salarjung Bahadur. These are centuries old and were probably brought here by the British Army. The engraving on the guns points to the year 1756. While the history of these majestic Cannons is buried in antiquity, they fell into disrepair until we refurbished them.

The famous Vickers Foundry of Sheffield, the ‘city of steel’, famous for making Church bells, moved into armaments, and later into aircraft and ships. They seem to have tinkered with these Cannons as we can see their Company Logo on them. We use the word tinkered because these Cannons pre-date the founding of the Vickers Foundry by over 70 years. They also show the date 17.12.1916 which would probably be the date they arrived here. We had to use restoration specialists from the Chowmahalla Palace to bring them back into shape. It took a unique combination of a skilled carpenter working in tandem with an equally skilled ironsmith around 3 months of effort to restore them completely.

These words are engraved upon them: “Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense”

The literal translation from old French is: “Shame be to him who thinks evil of it”. This motto is displayed in many public buildings in Britain and Colonial-era public buildings in various parts of the Commonwealth. After their restoration, these sentinels lend a lot of grace and dignity to the entrance of the Club.