KARACHI CANTONMENT RAILWAY STATION (Frere St. Station, 1898)

During the late 1890's, there was an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the subcontinent, which reached Bombay from China in the autumn of 1896. By December, an epidemic was declared in Karachi. Therefore, not a lot of construction activity was seen in the city during this period; the only two important buildings from this time being the Lady Dufferin Hospital, and the Cantonment Railway Station of Karachi. (ref. Lari 1996)

The Cantonment Railway Station, earlier known as the Frere Street Station, was one of the many buildings created by the Public Works Department. The building was finished by 1898 and cost a total of Rs. 80,000. The architecture of the building is modest compared to the train stations of Bombay, however, it uses an elegant classical architectural style and is an impressively sized building. The central projecting entrance section employs large Renaissance doorways and Roman arches crowned by a triangular pediment. The facade is arcaded and at both ends of the building, there are sections capped with Romanesque gables.