To the northwest of London, in a village hall in Castle Carrock, Cumbria, hangs an oil painting depicting a near-completed building in far off Bombay. This artist-s impression carries an interesting, detailed caption about The John Watson Building. It reads: -The iron frame from Derby, the bricks and cement from the Bank of Thames, the tiles from Staffordshire, red stone plinth and column bases from Penrith, Cumberland.-

These materials referenced were shipped from England via the Cape of Good Hope in 1864-5, and used in the making of a luxury hotel in a neighbourhood that-s now known as Kala Ghoda. Castle Carrock was where Watson, a wealthy drapery and tailoring businessman who built the hotel, was born. When it opened to guests in February 1871, the building, designed by Rowland Mason Ordish, rewrote the rules of luxury hospitality in the British Empire.