For old times’ sake

Decorative iron grilles. Red-oxide floors. Shuttered windows. Stained glass windows with floral patterns. It is not unusual for a Kolkata house — even a modest, middle-class one — of the early 19th century or later to have some of these features, if not all. Sharing space with specimens of ‘Bengali’ architecture on the cityscape are structures built by the British. While some enjoy protection under the ‘heritage’ tag, others are at the mercy of realtors who belong to the ‘multi-storey’ school of thought. Bhooter Bhabishyat (Future of the Past/Ghost — ‘bhoot’ means both in Bengali), a film released in 2012, is a poignant reminder of this loss of heritage. The film shows how a bunch of happy, noisy ghosts, residents of a palatial zamindari-style house, saves their home from the clutches of an unscrupulous builder who can only think of luxury malls.

Kolkata’s architecture is back in the news with a campaign led by author-singer Amit Chaudhuri. In an appeal to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Chaudhuri and a host of other prominent citizens (artists, filmmakers, academicians and architects) have asked for a stop to the destruction of buildings with the unique Bengali-European touch. The campaign has attracted much attention on social media, not just for its cry to save heritage but also showing how such neighbourhoods can be turned into tourist attractions.

Kolkata’s Raj-era buildings, too, need immediate attention. Many of the mighty Victorian buildings stand peeling and decaying, while several were demolished without as much as a murmur in protest from the city’s historians and intellectuals.

The Dalhousie Institute, built in 1865 at what was once known as Tank Square (now BBD Bagh), was one such casualty. It was demolished in 1950, making way for the ugly edifice that is Telephone Bhavan. The Institute found a new home in 42 Jhowtala Street, in the garden house of the celebrated General Jayanto Nath Chowdhury.

In another blow to the city’s colonial heritage, the Senate House, built in 1872 at a cost of ₹5 lakh, was demolished in 1960. It was the office of the vice-chancellor and registrar of the University of Calcutta. The building, with its portico and imposing pillars, found its way into many books on history, architecture and even education. It was designed by Sir Walter B Granville, the man behind other stately buildings like the General Post Office, Indian Museum and the High Court.

The country’s first permanent cinema hall, Elphinstone Picture Palace at Hogg Market (better known as New Market), was founded in 1907 by Jamshedji Framji Madan. It was rechristened twice — first Minerva, and then Chaplin. In 2013, Chaplin was razed, leaving the city’s Hollywood lovers heartbroken.

In the ’80s, the ruling Left government wanted to paint the copula of the grand Ochterlony Monument (Shahid Minar) red. Plans were afoot to demolish the Town Hall, famous for its classical Doric architecture. Strong voices of dissent — Satyajit Ray being one of those — forced the government to rethink. More recently, the Trinamool-led government faced stiff opposition when it announced a plan to fill the historic Lal Dighi (the Great Tank) to make way for a second version of the Writers’ Building, the state secretariat dating back to 1777.

The ‘Danger’ sign outside the palatial house of Raja Subodh Mullick in central Kolkata speaks volumes for the stepmotherly treatment it continues to get from the city administration. Declared a heritage building in 1998, the house, now a University of Calcutta property, was supposed to be developed into a venue for conferences. The only reminder of the building’s glorious past is a dust-covered plaque — it states that Sri Aurobindo lived here from 1906 to 1907.

Baghbazar’s Basubati is luckier. If things go as planned, this historic mansion will become a heritage hotel under the Harsh Neotia Group. It was here that Rabindranath Tagore conducted a mass Raksha Bandhan ceremony between Hindus and Muslims to protest the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. A plaque at the old palatial house proudly boasts the same. The interiors of Basubati, off limits for tourists, came alive in Srijit Mukherjee’s Baishe Srabon . The plot of this dark psychological thriller revolves around a renegade policeman. Basubati — with its crumbling walls, antique furniture, massive pillars with lion motifs — works beautifully as the lair of the lead character played by National Award-winning actor Prosenjit Chatterjee.

The magnificent Mackinnon & Mackenzie building at Fairlie Place on Strand Road is also set for a new lease of life. After years of neglect, a fire in the late ’90s spared nothing of the interiors of the building. It has been taken over by the Diamond Group, which plans to convert it into ‘Diamond Heritage’. Only the original façade of the building will be kept intact, with a new structure behind it. This will be the first example of ‘facadism’ in eastern India.

Arnab Banerjee is a Kolkata-based marketing professional, who also conducts walking tours of the city

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