Kulri Market

Stretching from the famous Cambridge Book Depot 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 erstwhile State Bank of India, now the LIC 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 Padma-Shree Padma-Bhushan Ruskin Bond used to visits every Saturday evening to interact with his fans and admirers. Surrounded by the numerous international coffee and pizza joints stand 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, mouth-watering non-vegetarian tandoori and rolls, few liquor and wine vends and three bars out of which are 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 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 theatre of the country which was run with electricity. Other 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 where the Camel’s Back Road culminates. 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.