It is only natural for Kolkata to have some of the finest specimens of colonial architecture. After all, it enjoyed the status of being, for one and half centuries, the capital of the British Empire in India and of the East India Company’s Dominions, prior to that. We may marvel at the Gothic architecture of the High Court and St Paul’s Cathedral as great examples of this class. Unlike Mumbai’s Fort area, however, Kolkata does not too many outstanding Gothic buildings. It has quite a few Neo Classical buildings like the Cossipore Club, the Sanskrit College on College Street, as also the Metcalfe Hall, the Commercial Library and the Town Hall — all three of which are in the central BBD Bagh area, known earlier as Dalhousie Square. Others in this area, like the Old Silver Mint and even the main block and entrance of Writers’ Buildings have typical Greek or Roman columns, capitals, architraves, friezes. and have a classic triangular pedimenta on top.
All the major forms of Graeco-Roman classical columns are in abundance, not only in government or institutional buildings, but in many old aristocratic family homes of north Kolkata. For example, the General Post Office, the National Insurance Building and the Metcalfe House, all in the BBD Bagh zone have gorgeous Corinthian capitals to crown their impressive columns or shafts. The Indian Museum on Chowringhee (now known as Jawaharlal Nehru Sarani), the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj building on Bidhan Sarani and the Ghari Bari on Chitpur Road also have fine specimens of this column. So commonplace is this style that even an ordinary bathing ghat on Strand Road, like Moti Seal’s, has them, though it is doubtful if the bathers ever look up to appreciate the decorative foliage. Ionic columns are also plentiful, as on the Raj Bhavan, Calcutta University’s Darbhanga Building on College Street and the Lohia Hospital on Chitpur Road, while simpler Doric or Tuscan columns are the most common. There is an interesting combination that several old churches in Kolkata had adopted and that was to build a complete classical building that looked like a Greek temple, which were utterly pagan, and then construct a tall spire with a cross on top of it, to indicate that it was a Christian church. The best examples I can give are the St. John’s Church and St. Andrew’s Kirk, both in the BBD Bagh area, as well as St. Thomas’ Church attached to Loretto College and the Sacred Heart Church on Dharmatala (Lenin Sarani).
Domes decorate the roof corners of impressive buildings with mixed European architecture like the Metropolitan Building of the LIC ( formerly Whiteway Laidlaw Stores) on Chowringhee and the Esplanade Mansions opposite the East Gate of Raj Bhavan are excellent examples. The latter, incidentally, has tell-tale signs of Art Nouveau architecture that was so popular at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. While the very Roman dome of the GPO dominates the landscape, the Mercantile Building and Gillander House close to it in BBD Bagh also have impressive domes. As Kolkata’s masonry buildings did not need or have sloping or gabled roofs, Georgian architecture was not in fashion, though large institutional or public buildings like Writers’ Buildings or the Accountant General’s office do have black, utilitarian tar-felted sloping mansards covering a part of their flat balustraded roofs.
Other forms of European, or more specifically, British architecture, are also quite visible, especially in Central Kolkata and a little to the south that were part of the old ‘White Town’. Massive red exposed-brick architecture, laced with cream-coloured sandstone on cornices and decorative lines, were extremely popular. This is evident from Writers’ Buildings, Eastern Railway Building, the Foreign Post Office, Accountant General’s Office, Government of India Press, Royal Insurance building and the Postal Museum — all of which are located in the BBD Bagh and within walking distance of each other. Even beyond, we come across very impressive such buildings of exposed brick in the Chowringhee area, like the Chowringhee Mansions and Kanak Building (formerly the Army and Navy Stores). The YMCA building, not too far away, and the Government Art College, which is also quite close, also belong to this category. The exposed red brick style was adopted by numerous institutions and residences in north Kolkata as well. We see it in the Brahmo Balika and Deaf and Dumb schools near Maniktala. Even in the south-central Kolkata, we have Shambhunath Pandit Hospital in the same style.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century, we find that many commercial buildings in central Kolkata dispensed with grand neo classical and similar sprawling buildings and made maximum use of floor space by cutting down bays, arcades, cloisters or large verandas — even though the hot, humid climate of Kolkata demanded open spaces and cross ventilation. Instead, they came up with buildings that rose straight upwards, directly from the pavements, with long symmetrical facades. Their ground floors were almost invariably rusticated, i.e., had deep decorative grooves that ran horizontally. If they had Venetian windows with circular arches above them, then the grooves matched them. They flaunted classical columns on their corners or at intervals along the facade, either to bear loads or as pilaster decorations. Macleod House, Wallace House, Stephen House and Martin Burn House in BBD Bagh are good specimens of such architecture, as are several buildings on Central Avenue, from Dharmatala to Bow Bazar.
Prosperous Indians of north Kolkata, however, copied a lot of European styles to lend grandeur to their mansions and to overawe visitors. Very often, so many styles and elements were combined that it makes categorisation difficult. Baroque plaster or stucco decorations were in great demand and stately classical columns would often be capped with excessively carved floral and leafy designs on the pediments or facades. These foreign elements were combined with the very local need to have a clear separation between the road-facing main building (sadar mahal) and the female quarters (andar mahal), hidden from public view. It was, therefore, essential to have a quadrangular courtyard so that the two quarters could be separate, and yet be joined by narrower buildings on two sides of the quadrangle, with covered verandahs and rooms. Light and ventilation would then be ensured in all the rooms. Special attention needs to be paid to a few local adaptions, like the louvred wooden screens that covered the top half or more of the porch, bay or verandah. These massive wooden boards, with slanting but fixed Venetian blinds, were firmly joined to the neo classical columns, shafts or cast iron pillars. This was to protect inmates against the scorching sun and gusty thunderstorms that would have flooded the verandahs and living rooms just beyond them. After all, the climate of Bengal is most unsuited to grandiose European architecture, as the doors or windows (if any) of the traditional huts, cottages or even double-storied mud houses were indeed very small, to protect residents against the elements. Thick mud walls and high thatched roofs helped control the outside temperatures, but most men, children and older ladies preferred to sleep in the open courtyard, at least where commoners were concerned.
When the middle class of Kolkata started moving into masonry buildings, and electricity including fans had not reached the city, cross ventilation of the stuffy rooms was essential. Hence the louvres or wooden Venetian blinds were retained on the smaller windows, but could be opened or shut, to prevent heat or rain and allow some breeze in. These are famous in Bengal, as the kharkhori. This is a distinctive feature of houses in Kolkata and Bengal that were built till the 1960s, when the electric fan reached middle class homes. An element of Kolkata’s architecture, that was comparable to Sydney— the two great cities of the British Empire, incidentally, had regular ships plying between them — was the intricately designed cast-iron balustrades and gates. They are called ‘verandah railings’ locally, but verandahs were actually meant the balconies that jutted outwards from the walls or constructions. Railings meant the usually-wooden lining on which one leaned, running on top of the the cast iron balustrades, that were fixed erect from the extended masonry balconies. The foundries of Howrah produced these cast iron balustrades for balconies and guards on the margins of staircases, as they lent, beauty, dignity, strength and lasted very long. Wonderful geometric, floral and other artistic patterns were created by cast iron makers at the request of their patrons and leafy vines or even family crests or coat of arms were quite popular. I have used the past tense as towards the middle of the twentieth century, cheaper inferior and less artistic wrought iron balustrades replaced them in smaller houses. The old balustrades still exist on many an ancient building of Kolkata, largely rusted and uncared for, but they give an idea of olden times and lost glory.
There is yet another architectural element that is seen in almost every aristocratic house of the 18th and 19th century Kolkata. It was most prominent in the house of the fabulously rich Raja Nabakrishna Deb, who made his fortune after conspiring with the British in the Battle of Plassey. His khilan thakur dalan or pillared porch arose from the rectangular courtyard in the sadar mahal the house. It was meant to house the family deity and also accommodate goddess Durga during her worship in autumn. Deb started the ritual of inviting British civil and military officials to impress them with his Durga Puja, but we can be sure that the white men came to this ‘heathen celebration’ not only to humour their factotum, but also to witness the Indian dancing girls, who were the star attraction. Wine and meat flowed in abundance, as worship became secondary in Deb’s show of pomp and power. All this was against Hindu rituals, but his wealth had secured Deb the position of being the undisputed leader of the upper caste Hindu tradition in Kolkata. These raised platforms, housing the deities, had thick load-bearing pillars in front, that were one-storey high, as the house above them usually went up to three storeys. Beautiful arches adorned and joined the upper part of these columns— serving as open doorways to view the deities. The number of such openings were usually three (teen khilan dalan) or five (panch khilan dalan). The plaster on the walls, the thick, short pillars and the arches was often ornamented and the multi-floriated arches were copied from the late medieval terracotta temples that had incorporated them from Islamic architecture. The raised sacred porch led down to the central courtyard through a gentle flight of stairs. These wonderful thakur dalans are still well preserved in most old houses, as no one would like to upset the family deity. Though there are no idols kept in the very Brahmo house of Rabindranath Tagore and his ancestors in Jorasanko, the porch and the paved quadrangle are very impressive. These are utilised by Rabindra Bharati University that is housed there, for its events and performances. Besides the houses of the Sovabajar Rajbari (Deb family’s), those of the Mitras of Darjipara, of Jagatram Dutta of Nimtala, of Dwarpanarayan Tagore in Pathuriaghaa, of the Roys of Jorasanko and the Jhamapukur Rajbati — all of which are in north Kolkata — flaunt excellent, typically-Bengali khilan thakur dalans.
The last feature that we may observe needs to be introduced properly as it is still not included as a very unique style of architecture of south Kolkata. I refer to Art Deco that stormed the western world between the two world wars. From the 1930s, architect firms like Ballardie, Thomson & Mathews introduced Art Deco to Kolkata and by the 1940s, iconic structures came up — like the English movie theatres: Metro, Globe, New Empire, Roxy and Lighthouse. Several other local theatres of north Kolkata. The characteristic features of the style reflected admiration for the modernity of the machine and for the inherent design qualities of machine-made objects, e.g., relative simplicity, planarity, symmetry, and unvaried repetition of elements. The distinguishing marks of the style are simple, clean shapes, often with a “streamlined” look that conveyed geometric symmetry — which replaced the grand ostentatious older buildings. While the western world used Art Deco for public buildings and gave up the fashion after the Second World War, Kolkata’s residential buildings adopted it only in the 1950s and 1960s. This style was in vogue in the newly-built localities of south Kolkata. The upper middle class or new rich for used it for their bungalows in the Alipore area and for large four storied houses in New Alipore. The three storied Art Deco buildings (sometimes four storied) are in plenty on Lake Road-Southern Avenue. The rest of the salary earners had their own scaled down versions for their modest homes in the areas on both sides of Rashbehari Avenue-Gariahat and in Ballygunge. These Art Deco buildings, that were called ‘Metro-style’ houses, had curved semicircular balconies or verandahs, with horizontal bands running on the sides as stepped cornice lines. At times, they had vertical lines of varying lengths down the middle, in perfect geometric shapes. Clean, sharp defined rectangular corners on one side could happily coexist with semi circular balconies and gently curved architecture on the other side. The central staircase usually had glass panes all the way up the top, running along the middle of the building, with a small flag stand on top. This style has not yet acquired celebrity heritage status, as few observe its sheer beauty and everyone is so fixated on the neo classical and other grander architecture of Kolkata. It is time we recognised smaller Art Deco residences as Kolkata’s unique contribution.