when kolkata was calcutta

8/6/2019 When Kolkata Was Calcutta

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The flag of Indian Empire from 1879 to 1946. This flag fluttered atop Fort William in Calcutta and many other public buildings but was seen as a symbol of oppression by nationalists who were to eventually lead India to

freedom from European rule.

Clive Street, 1890 (photograph, courtesy Bourne & Shepherd). To the north of the old Fort William, Clive Streetbecame the mercantile hub of the greatest city in Asia at the time. Headquarters for the stock exchange,

banks, shipping lines and merchant and engineering firms Clive Street was the citadel of laissez faire in theEast. Today, renamed Netaji Subhas Road, Clive Street is the address for the most business conglomerates in

Calcutta.



The Imperial General Post Office, 1890 (picture postcard). Built on the site of the old Fort William, the GeneralPost Office, as it is known today is an imposing edifice on the face of Calcutta.

Writers' Building, 1890 (picture postcard). Then the Secretariat of the Imperial Government of India and today the secretariat of the Government of West Bengal. Notice the tram lines in front of the building.



A label attributable to Jardine Skinner & Co. of Calcutta from 1890, one of the trading houses that prospered from the three way trade between London, Calcutta and Shanghai. Jardine Skinner today has disappeared from

all three cities but continues to business in Hong Kong.



Howrah Station, 1905. Arguably one of the world's busiest railway stations, it handled then as now, all thetraffic that went west from Calcutta. Situated across the river from the City of Calcutta, its link to the city has

been via a bridge.

The old Howrah Bridge, from a photograph of 1905. This bridge was built in 1886 to replace the ferry service tothe main railway station of Calcutta. This bridge had a retractable portion so as not to encumber maritimetraffic. In 1942, this bridge was replaced by the cantilever Howrah Bridge that we know of today. The old

bridge however continues to be in operation in the Kidderpore Docks.



Great Eastern Hotel, from a 1915 photograph. Once regarded as the finest hostelry "east of the Suez", GreatEastern once boasted of the only clone of the famous Parisian restaurant Maxim's. The hotel has since gone into

an abysmal decline but there is talk of handing it over to a French company and restoring it to its past glory .

The Indian headquarters of the Chartered Bank of India, China & Australia Limited in 1940. Today this buildingserves as one of the principal offices of the Standard Chartered Bank p.l.c. in India.



Chowringhee Road, 1940. One of the finest promenades in the world at the time. As part of the Allied Offensivein China in 1942-43, three make shift airstrips were built in Burma. They were nicknamed Broadway, Piccadilly

and Chowringhee, which demonstrates the league that this promenade kept at the time.

New Market, 1945. Officially built as the Sir Stuart Hogg Market in the 1880s but referred to this day as theNew Market, this was one of the first shopping malls in the world. Legend goes that one could buy tiger's milk

here at one time, New Market remains a major shopping center for residents and visitors alike.



Dum Dum Aerodrome, 1944. Calcutta was an obvious destination for all airlines of the world. Calcutta appeared on KLM's Amsterdam-Batavia (now Jakarta) route in 1928, on Air Orient's (later renamed Air France) Paris-

Saigon route in 1933 and Imperial Airways' London-Hong Kong/Singapore route in 1934. China National AviationCompany flew a Shanghai - Hong Kong - Chungking - Calcutta service in 1937. As a matter of fact, CNAC shifted

its operational headquarters to Calcutta after Shanghai fell to the Japanese.

A picture postcard depicting the tea room of Whiteway, Laidlaw & Co., the famous Calcutta departmental storethat once rivaled Harrod's, Macy's and Mitsukoshi.



An advertisement of the 1953 Baby Hindusthan. Hindusthan Motors started manufacturing Morris automobiles attheir factory near Calcutta in 1943. This factory, to this day, continues to manufacture the Ambassador, the

classic Morris Oxford with a minor variations, the standard taxi cab in Calcutta.

Calcutta's glory as the second city of the British Empire ended with the lowering of

the Union Jack from the mast atop Fort William on August 15, 1947. The departureof her creators deprived Calcutta of her special status, and partisan treatment by

the succeeding rulers and the apathy of her own people led to her rapid decline.However, true to her spirit, she continues to live and prosper even amongst her

seeming dereliction.

Courtesy:- http://cityofpalaces.tripod.com/history4.htm

All copyright with Focus Calcutta Initiative, Inc.Contents in this article should not be used for commercial purposes. Last modified December 10, 2003

when kolkata was calcutta

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