Category Archives: Community Halls

Dalhousie Institute, Hare Street, Calcutta, 1865

March 8, 2015Club Houses, Community Halls, Libraries/ Archives, Memorials, Monuments, Museums, New Township, Public Institutions, WhitesBritish East India Company, C.Q. Wray, cesil beadon, community hall, dalhousie club, dalhousie institute, dalhousie square, education, hare street, jhowtala street, lal dighi, lecture hall, library, lithograph, museum, old calcutta, whites onlyঅযান্ত্রিক

ডালহৌসি ইন্সটিট্যুট, লাল দিঘীর দক্ষিন পার, কলকাতা, c১৮৬৫

The Dalhousie Institute, situated on the south side of Dalhousie Square, was originally constructed as a Monumental Hall to accommodate busts and statues of great men associated with the history of British India, as well as to provide a resort for mental improvement and social intercourse for all classes. The foundation stone of the institute was laid on March 4, 1865 by the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, the Hon’ble Cecil Beadon.
As it is revealed in Archiseek, an Irish architectural journal, that Mr. C.Q. Wray, architect, was assigned for designing the Dalhousie Institute, and that the Institute, as we stated at the time, is intended to be built on a site adjoining Government House at the estimated cost of Rs 25,000 . The cost of its construction was met partly by public subscription and partly from funds raised to commemorate the heroic deeds of those who distinguished themselves in the mutiny of 1857.

The large hall is to be used as a concert and public-meeting room, and will accommodate 1,000 persons seated. It is also to be appropriated to the reception of statues and other memorials of distinguished men. On either side of it are lecture-rooms, lavatories, and an extensive library. The design, externally, may be described as a Corinthian prostyle temple, octastylos; with a lower building, Ionic, on each side. The two outer columns on each side in the portico are close together, and the tympanum is filled with sculpture. Three statues take the place of acroteria on the pediment. The great hall has single Corinthian columns with antae projecting from the wall, on each side at intervals, and a vaulted ceiling, panelled, with lunettes above the entablature of the order. A recces at one end will receive an organ.” A view of the grand interior of the Institute’s Great Hall where people assemble to witness the statues exhibited.

During World War II, the Institute was requisitioned for the use of US troops and, in 1948, it was shifted from Dalhousie Square to its present location where the original marble plaque commemorating the event has now been relocated in the entrance hall of the current premises at 42 Jhowtalla Street. The building was designed by Walter Granville. The Institute was not a social club in its early years – no drinks were served and no ladies were admitted as members till 1887.As published in The Builder, January 24, 1863. Demolished in 1950

This photograph of Hare Street from the ‘Walter Hawkins Nightingale (PWD) collection: Album of views of Calcutta, was most probably taken by photographer Samuel Bourne in the late 1870s. Dalhousie Square, named after Lord Dalhousie who was appointed Governor-General in 1847, was the main administrative area of Calcutta. The square also housed the headquarters of the East India Company known as the Writer’s Building, the Currency Office, and the General Post Office. Pictured here is a view from the top of the Telegraph Office, with the Dalhousie Institute situated below. The Dalhousie Square, with a corner of the Dalhousie Tank, and the General Post Office are in view on the right. This is an edited and enlarged version of the original image.

[A revised version replacing Nov. 28, 2013 post]

Metcalfe Hall, Strand Road, Calcutta, 1851

February 24, 2014Community Halls, Cultural, Libraries/ Archives, Racial Profile, Socio-Cultural Institutionsbengal social science association, c.k. robinson, calcutta, calcutta public library, corinthian pillars agricultural and horticultural society, dwarkanath tagore peary chand mitra, fort william college, francis frith, free press, hare street, metcalfe hall, old calcutta, sailors home, sir charles t. metcalfe, strand road, tower of the windsঅযান্ত্রিক

মেটকাফ হল, স্ট্র্যান্ড রোড, কলকাতা, ১৮৫১
Metcalfe Hall is erected on the plot where the old Sailors Home had stood in dilapidated condition at the junction of Strand Road and Hare Street. The Hall was completed in 1844 according to the design prepared by the city magistrate, C.K. Robinson, and named after Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, the Governor-General of India, in honour of his efforts towards a free press. The building faces the Hooghly river on the West. The notable Greek order of the architecture was taken from the Tower of the Winds in Athens, one of the time tested designs of durability and lightness. The building is raised on a solid basement and thirty huge Corinthian pillars support a massive entablature. The columns and colonnade surround the whole building. The main entrance from the West comprising a giant flight of stairs has been closed later, and provide access through the portico on the East.

Initially, the building housed the Agricultural and Horticultural Society and the Calcutta Public Library. The Library collection, formed by Lord Metcalfe, then the Governor General, who transferred 4,675 volumes from the library of the College of Fort William. These volumes and donations of books from individuals formed the nucleus of the library, which was created under private auspices. Dwarkanath Tagore was the first proprietor of Calcutta Public Library, and Peary Chand Mitra its first librarian. In 1867 the Bengal Social Science Association was established in this building.
Whole-plate albumen print from wet collodion glass negative of a photograph taken by Francis Frith in 1850s.

Old Court House, Fort William, Calcutta, c1760-1774

January 30, 2014Community Halls, Company Rule, Courts, Establishmentsbuildings, calcutta, dalhousie square, East India Company, fort william, francis swain ward, old court, old fort william, regulating act of 1773অযান্ত্রিক

পুরনো আদালত ভবন, ফোর্ট উইলিয়াম, কলকাতা, c১৭৬০-১৭৭৪.
This is a view of the Old Court House inside the Old Fort William, the first fortress built in 1696 by the British after their establishment in Bengal. As seen in the picture the Old Court House – the two storied building with its Ionic columns and an urn-topped balustrade – stands in front. It occupied the site of St. Andrew’s Church by the side of the Writers’ Buildings. This building also served as the Town Hall of Calcutta at one time. The Court House, which Mr. Bourchier built, was in 1762 greatly enlarged by the addition of verandahs, an additional saloon with a rooms as well as a dancing-saloon “in order that it might be used as an Exchange, Post Office, Quarter-Sessions Office, public entertainments, and Assembly rooms. For over thirty years the Old Court House was the scene of most of the public entertainments, and assembly balls. Towards the close of the century society had begun to break up into classes, subscription assemblies went out of fashion, and the old house became unsafe. The building was pull down in 1792. See more. .

Coloured aquaint by Francis Swain Ward (1736-94) painted in c1760s, and published ln: Views in Indostan by William Orme, Plate 17 in 1804

puronokolkata

Calcutta: as she was – a visual documentation of socio-cultural ethos spanning over three centuries

Category Archives: Community Halls

Dalhousie Institute, Hare Street, Calcutta, 1865

Old Court House, Fort William, Calcutta, c1760-1774

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