A distinct new settlement pattern emerged when the British set up separate military camps (cantonments) on the periphery of cities. All cantonments share a similar character arising out of common elements – the church, the club, the parade ground, the barracks, the bungalows, the spacious tree-lined avenues.

Of primary importance to the cantonment was of course the parade ground, which had many functions. Firstly it was a space for the military units to practise their various manoeuvres. On Sundays and holidays, it became a maidan for a chukkar of polo or a game of cricket. Lastly, it served as a buffer zone between the bungalows of the cantonment and the crowded gullies and alleyways of the native town.

With its name originating in the humble Bengali bangla or hut, the bungalow was also decisively influenced (via earlier colonists like the Dutch and Portuguese) by the indigenous vernacular architecture of South-east Asia. To the British, it rapidly developed into their ideal form of tropical housing. Essentially a single-storey house with a wide verandah to keep out sun and rain, this exotic Anglo-Indian hybrid became the prototype throughout the far-flung British Empire.