Lucknow’s heritage finds a new home at LMHA

On World Heritage Day, we took a stroll through the recently opened Lucknow Museum of Heritage & Art (LMHA) ‘Lamha’ as it is called, a moment to pause into the rich cultural and heritage legacy of Lucknow. Located adjacent to Ghanta Ghar in the heart of old Lucknow, the museum spans 13 galleries covering the city’s architectural, artistic, culinary, theatrical, and musical legacy through archival imagery, loaned artifacts, and heritage pieces sourced from local artisans. What sets it apart from the conventional heritage museum is its deliberate engagement of all the senses. Sight, sound and smell converge here to preserve what documents alone cannot, the feeling of belonging to Lucknow.

The museum begins with a ticket-free zone featuring an interactive screen to help tourists plan visits to Lucknow’s key religious, cultural, and culinary spots. It houses 13 galleries, including Mooldhara, Hunar Ka Safar, Syncretic Culture, Silhouette of Awadh, Tales of Theatre and Film, Zayqa-e-Awadh, and a dedicated VR arena.
Architect and co-curator Juweiria Qamruddin shares that the museum was initially envisioned as a digital space but later evolved into a more immersive experience with artefacts. The first gallery, Mooldhara, explores Awadh’s history through rare exhibits, including a 4000-year-old terracotta piece on loan from the State Museum Lucknow, along with textiles by Asma Hussain and a historic Nawal Kishore Press installation. The second gallery, Hunar Ka Safar, recreates old Lucknow’s streets, highlighting crafts like chikankari and zardozi. She adds that the space will also host cultural events, making it a living celebration of heritage.

A museum with a recipe book built in
Taking us through the section which reflects on the culinary heritage of Lucknow, the official told us, “The food gallery titled Zayqa-e-Awadh, Gastronomy and Culinary Heritage of Awadh, celebrating the recent UNESCO recognition, showcases a rare Lucknowi food vocabulary, allowing visitors to decode the language of the city’s cuisine. The special part of the gallery is how tourists can also access rare recipes from different Lucknow gharanas through a digital archival recipe book. The gallery also brings the city’s most revered sweets to life, Jalebi Rabdi, Shahi Tukda and Anarsa, recreated as naturalistic displays that give visitors a visceral, almost edible sense of what Lakhnawi mithai looks and feels like.”

The sight, sound, and smell of intangible heritage
Three galleries stood out to give a tangible experience of the city’s legacy. The Tales of Theatre features a small screening room showing a documentary on Lucknow’s journey in theatre and film. In Hunar Ka Safar, perfume balls carry you back to the city’s olfactory memory. And perhaps the most quietly powerful spot in the museum is an open-view window where a mandir and a masjid fall in the same frame in the evenings, the bhajan and the azaan can sometimes be heard together, with the Gomti flowing in the background, embodying the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb of Lucknow. The Nritya Kala section has a dedicated wall to Sufi Kathak exponent Manjari Chaturvedi, followed by a sight-and-sound wall where different Kathak expressions can be explored through an interactive screen. A locker section lets visitors pull out headphones to listen to ghazals, classical compositions, and poetry from the city’s archives.

LMHA showcases Lucknow and its multifaceted, multi-layered identity interestingly and aesthetically. I hope this becomes a place where people come to appreciate that complexity with all its beauty, craft, music, and art
– Vandana Sehgal, curator, principal and dean of architecture college, (AKTU)

Lucknow has a vast and rich legacy, and preserving that richness, across all its aspects, was an important step. This museum is meant to be a one-stop destination for tourists and residents alike to understand what it feels like to belong to Lucknow. The location gives it another edge, with different windows open to Bhool Bhulaiyya and Ghanta Ghar, making it a natural gateway to the city
— Prathmesh Kumar, Vice Chairman of LDA

The VR zone: getting lost in Bhool Bhulaiyya
The museum also houses a VR gaming zone designed especially for children. Vanshraj, an official at the gallery, described the experience in progress, “We are building a game based on the Bhool Bhulaiyya. Children have to solve the maze and find a way out of the monument.”
-Amina Ashraf and Manas Mishra