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Garstin Bastion Road, Delhi — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Garstin Bastion Road, officially Swami Shraddhanand Marg, is a long commercial street on the southern edge of Old Delhi. Most people call it GB Road. Its ground floors hold one of the capital's largest wholesale markets for hardware, sanitary fittings, and machine parts, while the storeys above have long made the street Delhi's biggest and most notorious red-light district. The road stretches from Ajmeri Gate toward Lahori Gate, within the old walled city of Shahjahanabad.
About Garstin Bastion Road
Where to stay in Garstin Bastion Road
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Few visitors book a room on GB Road itself. The street has almost no tourist hotels; its buildings are wholesale hardware shops at street level and brothels above, and it is best treated as a route rather than a base. Travelers who want to be near Old Delhi's sights usually stay around Paharganj and New Delhi Railway Station, a few minutes west of Ajmeri Gate, or in the wider hotel districts of central Delhi.
From there the museums of Kashmiri Gate and the lanes around Chandni Chowk are an easy auto-rickshaw ride. Come for the market, not a bed.
About Garstin Bastion Road
What are the main landmarks in Garstin Bastion Road?
GB Road itself has no monuments. Its sights lie in the surrounding walled city, beginning north toward Kashmiri Gate, where some of Delhi's oldest colonial buildings stand, among them St James' Church, the Partition Museum, and St Stephen's Church. East at Lahori Gate, the Red Fort holds the Red Fort Archaeological Museum and the Indian War Memorial Museum.
Off Chandni Chowk sits Ghalib ki Haveli, the restored home of the Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. A short ride southeast reaches Raj Ghat and the National Gandhi Museum by the Yamuna.
What is the history of Garstin Bastion Road?
The road runs along the edge of Shahjahanabad, the walled Mughal capital that Shah Jahan laid out in the seventeenth century. Its colonial name, Garstin Bastion Road, recalls a bastion of the old city wall. After independence the street was renamed Swami Shraddhanand Marg.
The upper-floor kothas descend from an older courtesan tradition, while the ground floors slowly filled with the hardware and machine-tool trade that crowds them by day. Two worlds share one address.
Where is Garstin Bastion Road?
The road forms part of the old southern boundary of Shahjahanabad, the walled city laid out by the Mughals. It begins at Ajmeri Gate, close to New Delhi Railway Station and the backpacker lanes of Paharganj, then runs northeast toward Lahori Gate and the Red Fort. The great bazaar of Chandni Chowk lies just to the north.
Kashmiri Gate marks the far end.
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Updated July 2026