The road is named after James Meston, Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1912 to 1918 and was later, in 1919 a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of British India along with Sir Satyendra Prasanno Sinha.
Meston Road also known as 'gun bazaar' (Gun Market) is the centre of arms and ammunition shops in Kanpur.
In April 1913, Islamic scholars and eminent Muslims moved a petition through Barrister Shahid Hussain to Lt.
Sir James Meston to prove that the targeted portion was the part and parcel of the mosque from religious point of view.
[3] As the Muslims gathered at the place where the eastern part of the mosque once stood the British Magistrate of Kanpur My.Taylor ordered them to dispense.