Banjara Hills · Hyderabad · Est. 1908
A Nizami house,
kept exactly as it was.
Nineteen rooms behind a Paigah facade, where original jaali screens, naqashi ceilings, and a Belgian chandelier survive intact — restored, never replaced.
The House
Built for a Paigah nobleman.
Reopened for his guests.
The mansion was raised in 1908 by Nawab Sarwar-ul-Mulk’s estate architect, then passed through three families before falling quiet for two decades. In 2015 the current owners, the Devarakonda family, began a restoration that took eighteen craftsmen four years to complete.
Every stone jaali screen was cleaned by hand rather than replaced. The naqashi ceiling paintwork was matched pigment by pigment against a 1911 photograph found in the Salar Jung archive. Deccan Serai opened its doors in October 2017.
Accommodation
Three ways to stay
Within These Walls
The interiors, as they stand today
Guests Have Said
From the visitors’ book
“I have stayed at every heritage property between Lahore and Mysore. Nothing prepared me for the naqashi ceiling in my room — I lay awake tracing the paisleys until midnight.”
“The Irani Bar pours a Nizami sherry cobbler that no one in this city has bothered to recreate properly until now. Worth the trip alone.”
“My grandmother’s wedding reception was held in this house in 1962. Walking through the Durbar Lobby again, restored but unmistakably itself, undid me a little.”