Flagstaff Tower

Flagstaff Tower is a castellated, one-room tower on the Kamla Nehru Ridge near the North Campus of Delhi University. The British Indian Army built it around 1828 as a signal tower for the cantonment, on what was then the highest point of the ridge, a largely bare stretch of low scrub before planting began in 1910. It is now a memorial protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

On 11 May 1857, as rebel sepoys took Delhi, many Europeans and their families fled here and waited for help from Meerut. A month later, on 7 June, Company forces returning to retake the city fought a hard battle against sepoys at the tower and held the ridge by evening. The tower is kept locked; inside is a circular room that can hold up to a hundred people. Graffiti has damaged parts of its walls.