Photograph: Banks House.
Large two-storey house with Indian soldiers casually standing outside, 1858 (c).
One of 61 photographs by Felice Beato, Indian Mutiny (1857-1859).
Originally known as the Hayat Bakhsh Kothi, the house belonged to Nawab Saadat Ali Khan (1798-1814) before being purchased by the East India Company in 1801. After the British annexation of Oudh in 1856 the house became the residence of Major John Sherbrooke Banks, the first Chief Commissioner of Lucknow and assistant to Sir Henry Lawrence, the Commissioner of Oudh. Banks was killed by a musket shot on 21 July 1857 during the Siege of Lucknow.