Currently the Taj Residency is the only grand hotel in Lucknow but the Oberoi has its eye on an old building in the middle of town so the Taj better beware. This hotel started life as part of the Taj ‘leisure’ chain but has subsequently become a ‘business’ hotel. And it shows. Built in 1995 and reflecting the Nawabi era, the hotel is a short drive from the centre of town; the rooms are lugubrious with dark-brown reproduction furniture and rather heavy and unattractive bedspreads and curtains; the sofa in the room was also covered in dark-brown material. Be sure to ask for a room NOT facing the garden as there seemed to be a daily wedding party that continued well into the night. The service in the bar was agonisingly slow and until the Manager arrived there was no chilled Kingfisher beer (I know this is India but with Taj rates you expect better). There were no hotel shops and not even a postcard for sale. There is much to come to Lucknow for – relics of the Mutiny, La Martiniere School (where Kipling’s Kim went) and many fantastical Muslim monuments frothily reminiscent of Brighton Pavilion. Bill Clinton stayed at the Taj in September 2005.
