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2.1.2 FLOOR PLAN
interest in any events which happened in the families of the owner of the property and would take part in family festivities. 6. Vegetables and fodder for castle were grown behind the house and the cattle themselves were kept there. Ample stabling for horses for riding, driving and polo and the necessary coach-houses, harness room etc. were situated along the south wall of the compound.
2.1.2FLOOR PLAN
7. The front verandah originally had a trellis between the elegant ionic columns. There was plenty of comfortable cane furniture here and thus verandah was used for receiving visitors who would not come into the house itself because of the women in purdah. 8. The drawing room was used for entertaining close friends and relatives who would come within the family circle. 9. Meals were taken in the dining room when there were guests or extra relatives. A punkah hung across it, pulled by a ‘punkah wallah’ who sat in one of the back bedrooms.
10.The two front bedrooms were always the main bedroom. In earlier days, the rooms leading off these bed rooms were not Bathrooms but study/boudoirs. 11.The back bedrooms were used either as dressing rooms when the family was smaller, or as children’s rooms. 12.The fireplace, an unusual, but not unique, feature of Bangalore houses was used in chilly weather. 13.The breakfast room was used as the family dining room when there were no guests. 14.On one side of the breakfast room was the prayer room, used largely by the women of the household, and on the other side was the nursery, the ayah’s domain. 15.The present bathrooms, off these back bedrooms, were portioned off as part dressing rooms and part toilets in European sense, when bedroom were in use. 16.Binfield gives the impression of a house which has been designed and built with particular care and skill. The thick walls are said to be of ‘pukka’/ burnt bricks. The delicate craftsmanship and detail of both plaster and woodwork in the niches, pilasters, fireplace and fan lights is especially fine. 17.It is significant that this house and compound have been through many changes of occupants as families grow up and ways of life and fortunes fluctuate, but Binfield has been easily adapted to different uses, and the grace of the Building itself and its setting among fine tress still remains.
