When the British established Bombay Presidency, they found the place quite hot. To beat the heat, they established two other capital – a monsoon one in Poona and a summer capital in the hill station of Mahabaleshwar.

The Pune University heritage walk is centered around its main building which first served as the monsoon residence of the British governor and later as the administrative block of the Poona University. The building was constructed in the year 1864 by Sir Henry Bartle Frere – the then Governor of Bombay. The entire building took 7 years to complete and a whooping sum of 1.75 lakhs Sterling Pounds was spent on its construction. The amount was six times the sale of his previous residence and was so lavish that it drew tremendous criticism from the British Parliament.

Not to be outdone, his successor, William Vesey-FitzGerald added to the interiors of the building and landed up spending another fortune of 500 Sterling Pounds on one single item that is now the pride of the ballroom.

The building continued to be used right till the end of the British Raj. After it was deemed as the Pune university, its original structure was left intact. In 2008, restoration work on the building began to preserve its legacy and today, while the offices of the Dean and the Vice Chancellor are still there, the lower floors, its secret tunnel and its tower serve as attractions of the new Pune University heritage walk.