KULRI BAZAAR

Stretching from the State Bank of India through the erstwhile Picture palace, Kulri bazaar is the biggest and the most happening hub in the town with international brands showrooms and pizza and coffee joints lined up next to each other yet amidst some structures of the British times. The State Bank building itself is an impressive colonial architectural marvel which used to be the Himalayan Hotel that had hosted prominent personalities of the bygone times such as Frederick 'Pahari' Wilson and Sir John Lang. The exchange building is another such masterpiece where a printing press published journals of those times. The Cambridge Book Depot is where Padamshree Ruskin Bond visits every Saturday evening to interact with his fans and admirers. Surrounded by the numerous international coffee and pizza joints stand two restaurants managed by local Tibetan families serving authentic delicious Tibetan, Chinese and Thai cuisines.

Other magnets in the Kulri bazaar includes antiques and souvenir shops, drapers, Kashmiri garment showrooms, international fashion and sports brands showrooms, tattoo, body piercing studios and cyber cafes, chocolate-muffin-softies-brownies cafes, coffee-south Indian Cuisine, paani puri-tikki chat outlets, delicious hams and sausages, mouth watering non-vegetarian tandoory and rolls, two liquor and wine vends and two bars out of which one is famous for its tempting sizzlers and live music. The night in Kulri Bazaar is not complete without the choice of cigar, aromatic paan or hot gulab jamun or cold ras malai which can be savoured at the square where one path leads to The Rink. The Rink was and still is one of the most peculiar wooden floors roller skating Rinks in the entire country. The fever of skating in India got ignited from the Rink only which used to be the biggest skating Rink of those times. The Rink hosted the venue of numerous national and international skating championship both pre and post Independence. The Picture Palace, which was called the Electric Picture Palace pre-Independence, was the first ever Picture there of the country which was run with electricity. The theatres were usually run with petromax those days. Just beneath the Picture Palace was the Jubilee Cinema and together both the theatres were the crowd puller during the 1970s and 1980s. Another theatre, La-Anjuman, stood right next to the Roxy building near The Rink. The route which leads through Picture palace till Landour bazaar is lined with shops belonging to the Bhotia community of Mussoorie who sell woollens, garments and silver jewellery.