The cantonment area of Srinagar, Badami Bagh is a remnant of the colonial military and administrative quarter that contrasts sharply with the old city across town. Wide, tree-lined roads, British-era bungalows, and the kind of institutional architecture that appears in every former British Indian cantonment characterise the area. The neighbourhood is primarily a military zone — Badami Bagh Cantonment is the headquarters of the Indian Army's 15 Corps — and much of it is not accessible to civilians.
What is worth seeing from the public roads is the colonial urban fabric: the scale of the bungalows, the military church, and the wide avenues are a reminder that Srinagar was an important administrative centre as well as a leisure destination for the British and the Dogra rulers. The area is also home to some of the older hotels in the city. The contrast between the traditional carved wooden architecture of the old city and the colonial institutional architecture here, both existing in the same small city, is a physical record of Kashmir's complex administrative history.