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The General Post Office, Kolkata is the central post office of the city of
The site where the GPO is located was actually the site of the first Fort William. An alley beside the post office was the site of the guardhouse that housed the infamous 1756 
The staircase at the eastern side of the GPO features a brass plate, which marks the eastern end of the Old Fort William. This is probably the only remaining of the ancient fort of Calcutta. Recently a marble plaque has been installed on the Eastern walls of GPO, which highlight the Brass Plate.
To the north of the GPO is the Kolkata Collectorate, which was once the office of the regional ‘Collector’, a designation invented by the British Government after 1857 to replace the traditional Zamindars.
The GPO is notable for its imposing high domed roof (rising over 220 feet) and tall Ionic- Corinthian pillars. A postal museum that was built in 1884 displays a collection of artefacts and stamps. The Philatelic Bureau is located on the southwestern end of the building.
File:KolkataGPO1.JPG, Kolkata GPO with some ongoing restoration work
File:Calcutta GPO.JPG, Kolkata GPO Dusk View
File:Lal Dighi (Red Pool), Tank Square, Kolkata, India.jpg, Remote view from Lal Dighi
File:KOLKATA G.P.O.jpg, Kolkata GPO Night View
Postage stamp on GPO
Tourist attractions in Kolkata Buildings and structures in Kolkata K Government buildings in West Bengal {{Philately-stub
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and the chief post office of West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
. The post office handles most of the city's inbound and outbound mail and parcels. Situated in the B. B. D. Bagh area, the imposing structure of the GPO is one of the landmarks in the city.
Kolkata GPO is one of the five Philatelic Bureaus in the country (others being Mumbai GPO, Chennai GPO, Parliament Street, and New Delhi GPO) that are authorised to sell the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
stamps.
History
The site where the GPO is located was actually the site of the first Fort William. An alley beside the post office was the site of the guardhouse that housed the infamous 1756 Black Hole of Calcutta
The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta, measuring , in which troops of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war on the night of 20 June 1756. John Zephaniah Holwell, one of the British p ...
(1756). The General Post Office was designed in 1864 by Walter B. Grenville (1819-1874), who acted as consulting architect to the government of India from 1863 to 1868.
The staircase at the eastern side of the GPO features a brass plate, which marks the eastern end of the Old Fort William. This is probably the only remaining of the ancient fort of Calcutta. Recently a marble plaque has been installed on the Eastern walls of GPO, which highlight the Brass Plate.
To the north of the GPO is the Kolkata Collectorate, which was once the office of the regional ‘Collector’, a designation invented by the British Government after 1857 to replace the traditional Zamindars.
Building
The GPO is notable for its imposing high domed roof (rising over 220 feet) and tall Ionic- Corinthian pillars. A postal museum that was built in 1884 displays a collection of artefacts and stamps. The Philatelic Bureau is located on the southwestern end of the building.
Location
It is located on Netaji Subhas Road in B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata. The location is very near to BBD Bag Railway Station.Gallery
See also
* Indian Postal ServiceExternal links
Postage stamp on GPO
Tourist attractions in Kolkata Buildings and structures in Kolkata K Government buildings in West Bengal {{Philately-stub