Places of interest in Kolkata

Kolkata (also known as Calcutta) is currently the third-most populous metropolitan city in India after Mumbai and Delhi.

Museums and libraries

* Victoria Memorial was built in the heart of the City of Joy, Kolkata to commemorate the Empress of India and Queen of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria after her death in 1901, located at Queen's Way. The Victoria Memorial was modelled on the Taj Mahal and was commissioned in 1906 by Lord Curzon's brainchild. Opened to the public in 1921, it was designed by the architects William Emerson and his protege Vincent Esch at the extraordinary cost of Rupees 10.5 million ($262,500), all of which was collected as voluntary donations, mostly from the British and Indian nobility. The memorial holds numerous paintings of the British royal family, miniature paintings of the Mughal School, oil paintings of the Company School (notably the uncle - nephew pair of Thomas Daniell and William Daniell), historical artefacts like the throne of the Nawab of Bengal, many lithographs and documents of historical interest, and various post-Raj artefacts significant in the history of Kolkata (added to the collection after independence). The memorial is set in extensive and beautiful lawns, and is lit up at night. A laser audio-visual show is held on the lawns every evening. 'Nike', the Greek Goddess of victory, on the top of the museum is said to be haunted, and has been prominently featured in many Kolkata stories and novels. It is regarded with pride and joy in Kolkata and colloquially referred to as the "Victoria".

* The Indian Museum is the largest museum in Asia and the oldest in the Asia - Pacific region (est. 1814 at the location of the Asiatic Society). The Museum shifted to its present sprawling residence in 1875. Situated on Jawahar Lal Nehru Road, it houses perhaps the greatest collection of Indian natural history and an Indian Art collection to rival the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum. Of specific note are the meteorite hall and dinosaur hall in the Natural History and Geology section, the numismatics section and the collections of Gandhara Art, Burmese woodwork, Mughal miniatures and Tibetan banner sections in the Indian Art section. The Anthropological Survey of India headquarters and the Government College of Art and Craft are housed in the same building. The Geological Survey of India headquarters moved from the museum to Bidhan Nagar recently. The Indian Museum has a library of excellent historical value, with a special focus on the ''Raj'' and Kolkata.

* The Marble Palace is a privately owned collection of eclectic sculptures, paintings and a small menagerie and aviary off Chittaranjan Avenue in North Kolkata. Built by Raja Rajendra Mullick in 1835, it houses, among other treasures two little-publicized Reubens and a Joshua Reynolds, not to mention over 50 varieties of marble which grace the interiors of this mansion. Since Covid 19 in India, this palace is strictly prohibited for outsiders and tourists.

* Birla Industrial & Technological Museum on Gurusaday Dutta Road, was inaugurated in 1959 as the first popular science museum in Asia. Modelled on the Deutsches Museum, it has interactive popular science exhibits and a significant collection of historical industrial holdings in India. Its collection of old gramophones, sound recorders, telephones, steam engines, road rollers, and other industrial machinery of the period 1880–1950 is very significant. The museum sports a vintage model of the Rolls-Royce Phantom I make. It also actively organizes summer camps, awareness programs and astronomy observations for school children.

* Science City is a complex on the John Burdon Sanderson Haldane Avenue featuring a lot of interactive science and live bioscience exhibits, as well as having Kolkata's first OMNIMAX theatre.

* The Rabindra Bharati Museum is the ancestral home of the Tagore family and was converted into a museum in 1961, located at Dwarka Nath Tagore Lane near Rabindra Sarani. The huge sprawling brick mansions were the cultural hub of Kolkata for close to a century and were a major force in the women's liberation movement. It hosted the first Brahmo wedding and was an important center of the Independence movement. The museum has three large galleries - one of the life and works of Rabindranath, a second gallery about his close relatives such as father Debendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore etc. and a third gallery on the Bengal Renaissance in general.

* Gurusaday Museum, on Diamond Harbour Road, is the outcome of a lifetime collection of traditional Bengal folk arts in undivided Bengal by Sir Gurusaday Dutt. On his death in 1941, the collection was handed over to the Bratachari Society founded by Sir Gurusaday Dutt to preserve and protect Bengal folk arts. It was opened as a museum to the public with the help of the Government of India in 1963. It contains, among other fine handicrafts, terracotta panels, kantha or folk quilt work, and patas (or hand painted scrolls of the late 1900s), notably of the Kalighat School. The Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, on College Street, is the other museum specializing in Bengal folk arts, but with significant archaeological holdings from sites in West Bengal and Bihar like Chandraketugarh and Tamluk. The first university owned museum in India, it is run by the University of Calcutta and is named after its famous vice chancellor Sir Asutosh Mukherjee.

* Nehru Children's Museum is named after Jawaharlal Nehru, whose love for children was well known, located at Jawahar Lal Nehru Road. In order to pay homage to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, National Cultural Association established the Museum in 1972 on Panditji's name on his birthday. The museum has a collection of dolls and toys from across the globe, and has a doll - based retelling of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Established in 1972 close to the Victoria Memorial, and commonly referred to as "Nehru Children's Museum"; this museum is aging awkwardly fast. There are dolls which are not only bounded to India, but also of different states, countries, religious like the dolls of Bangladesh, Japan, China, Rhodesia, Korea, Indonesia. Other than these there are dolls which are dressed according to the places like Delhi, Assam, West Bengal, Chennai, Maharashtra, Andaman, Mexico, Portuguese and many more. There is even a separate cabin displaying various forms and styles of Ganesh.

* Sabarna Sangrahashala located at Baro Bari, Barisha, is the only family museum of Kolkata which is open to public. It was established in 2005 by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury Paribar Parishad and is a tourist destination specially for those who want to know more about the history of Kolkata. It is also a research institute in the making. The museum possesses some of the rarest ''Kabulatipatras, documents'' and ''articles'' of historical importance besides several artifacts dating back to the 17th century. The museum is dedicated to students for creating an awareness of history, heritage, and culture of the land. Every year in the month of February, the museum organizes the International History and Heritage Exhibition which is only of its kind in Eastern India.

* National Library of India located in Alipore is India's leading public library. It was inaugurated in 1836 by the Governor General Lord Metcalfe by transferring 4675 books from the College of Fort William. Public donations were the main source of books for the library, and by donations of Rupees 300 from proprietors. Dwarakanath Tagore was the first proprietor of the library. The library was initially only partially public, as poor students could use the library for a limited period of time. The Imperial Library was founded in 1891 by merging several libraries like those of the East India College and East India Board. Governor General Lord Curzon initiated the merger of these two libraries into a single Imperial Library in 1903 at the Metcalfe Hall. The goals of the library were to collect ''every'' book written about India at any time. The Assistant Librarian of the British Museum John Macfarlane was the first librarian and was succeeded by the first Indian librarian Harinath De. The library was moved to its present quarters in Belvedere Estate, Alipore and renamed the National Library. It is a fully public library which co-ordinates the activities of all other Indian public libraries. True to its goal, any book published in India today has to send one copy to the National library in the spirit of the Library of Congress, United States.

* Kolkata also has some other small museums like the Rail Museum, Tram Museum, Naval Aircraft Museum, Fanatic Sports Museum, Ashutosh Museum of Indian Art, Netaji Bhawan, Swami Vivekananda Museum, State Archaeological Museum, Academy of Fine Arts, The Asiatic Society, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Museum, Mother's Wax Museum and the Police Museum.

* Birla Planetarium in Kolkata runs many shows on educational and entertainment purposes about astronomy, astrophysics, space science, history of astronomy and mythology regarding stars and planets. It is situated on Jawahar Lal Nehru Road near several notable places like Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial, Maidan, and St. Paul's Cathedral. It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 July 1963. Projection on spherical ceiling accompanied by live audio (Bengali, English, and Hindi) is the major attraction of the Birla Planetarium. It also has an electronics laboratory, astronomy gallery, and an astronomical observatory equipped with a Celestron C-14 Telescope.

* The other popular Kolkata libraries include the General Library of Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture located at Gol Park, maintained by the Ramakrishna Mission, Kolkata. The collection of this library was initially confined to a few books and journals, stacked in one or two book-cases. Dr. Barid Baran Mukherjee gifted over 33,000 volumes to the library in 1941.

* The other historically significant libraries are Calcutta Club library, Asiatic Society, Indian Museum, Presidency University, Scottish Church College and St. Xavier's College, Calcutta.

Heritage administrative offices

* Calcutta High Court - It is the oldest High Court in India. It was established as the ''High Court of Judicature at Fort William'' on 1 July 1862 under the ''High Courts Act, 1861''. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court building is an exact replica of the Stand Haus in Ypres, Belgium. It is recorded that when the original Stand Haus burnt down, a blueprint of Granville's Calcutta High Court had to be consulted before rebuilding it. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 63. Despite, the name of the city was officially changed from ''Calcutta'' to ''Kolkata'' in 2001, the old name is retained by the court as it is an institution.
* Bankshall Court - It is the present City Sessions Court of Kolkata. Two of its buildings are old heritage.
* Raj Bhavan (Government House) - It was built in the early 19th century, is modeled on Kedleston Hall. The house was once the seat of the viceroys of India; later, when the government moved to New Delhi, it became the residence of the Governor of Bengal, a function that it fulfills to this day. While the basic features of Kedleston have been faithfully copied (the Palladian Front, the Dome etc.), Government House is a much larger, three-storeyed structure. Also, the Government of India evidently did not have the funding constraints that forced the Curzons to leave their house incomplete: Government House has all four wings originally conceived for Kedleston. So today, a 'complete', brick built Kedleston, on a much grander scale, is located in its acres of gardens at the heart of the Kolkata business district.
* Town Hall - In Roman-Doric style, this building was built by the architect Col. John Garstin in 1813 with a fund of Rupees seven lakhs raised from lottery to provide the Europeans with a place for social gatherings. At first, the hall was placed under a committee, which allowed the public to use the hall under such terms and conditions as were fixed by the Government. The public could visit the ground floor hall to see statues and large size portrait paintings but they were not allowed indiscriminate access to the upper storey. Applications for the use of the upper storey were to be made to the committee. In 1867 Town Hall came under the custody of the Calcutta Municipality (later on Kolkata Municipal Corporation). In the year of 1897 the Town Hall had been partly renovated. After political independence in 1947, indiscriminate interference with the structure inevitably took its toll. That, at last, has been prevented in 1998 by timely intervention. The town hall was featured on the 6th leg of The Amazing Race 18, when the teams had to compete in a tea-drinking roadblock.
* Writers' Building - It is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India. The Writers' Building originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, hence the name. Designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777 the Writers' building has gone through several extensions over the years. In 1821 A 128 ft-long verandah with ionic style columns, each 32 ft high, were added on the first and second floors. From 1889 to 1906 two new blocks were added. It acquired its Greco-Roman look, complete with the portico in the central bay and the red surface of the exposed brick. The parapet was put in place and the statues sculpted by William Fredric Woodington in 1883, that line the terrace, were installed. The giant pediment at the centre is crowned with the statue of Minerva. The terrace also contains several other statues and notable among them are four clusters of statues, christened 'Justice', 'Commerce', 'Science' and 'Agriculture', with the Greek Gods and Goddesses of these four streams (Zeus, Hermes, Athena and Demeter respectively) flanked by a European and an Indian practitioner of these vocations, adorn the building. The 150 meter long Writers' Building covers the entire northern stretch of the a water body locally called Lal Dighi in Binay Badal Dinesh Baag area. Various departments of the West Bengal government are housed in this building. It is an edifice of great political significance and memories of the Indian Independence Movement. Writer's building was used as Chief Minister's Office and secretariat. However, from October 2013 certain departments and the office of Chief Minister moved to Nabanna, in Howrah to facilitate restoration of Writers Building.
* General Post Office - It is the central post office of the city of Kolkata, India and the chief post office of West Bengal. The post-office handles most of the city's inbound and outbound mail and parcels. Situated in the Binay Badal Dinesh Baag area, the imposing structure of the GPO is one of the landmarks in the city.
* Esplanade Mansions
* South Eastern Railway Headquarters, Garden Reach
* Howrah station - It is one of the five intercity train stations serving Howrah and Kolkata, India; the others are Sealdah Station and Kolkata railway station in Kolkata and Shalimar Station and Santragachi Station in Howrah. Howrah is situated on the West bank of the Hooghly River, linked to Kolkata by the magnificent Howrah Bridge which is an icon of Kolkata. It is the oldest station and the largest railway complex in India.

Historic hotels

The Great Eastern Hotel (officially Lalit Great Eastern Hotel) was founded as the Auckland Hotel in 1841, at the crossroads of the Hemanta Basu Sarani and British India Street, founded by confectioner David Wilson and named after the then Governor General Lord Auckland. It grew from strength to strength over the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Locally known as "Wilson's Hotel", it was also known as "Auckland Hotel and the "Hall of Nations" in the 19th century, and was referred to as the "Japani Hotel" (Japanese Hotel) colloquially in the 20th century, due to a large number of Japanese tourists there. The hotel was extremely elite, referred to as the "Jewel of the East" and "the best hotel East of the Suez" by Mark Twain on his voyage along the Equator, and described by Rudyard Kipling in "The City of Dreadful Night". It had notable board members like the author Peary Chand Mitra and stockholders like W. C. Bonnerjee - president of the Indian National Congress. The hotel was famous for its new year parties thrown by Maharajahs (like the Maharajah of Cooch Behar) until the 1950s. It has been host to such notables as Elizabeth II on her India visit, Nikita Khrushchev's delegation in the 1950s, and visiting international cricket teams. The hotel kitchens, manned by the legendary Baruahs of Chittagong (now in Bangladesh), was the talk of Kolkata. It steadily progressed downhill since the 1970s, and was taken over by the Government of West Bengal in 1975 on grounds of insolvency. Labour union problems caused the hotel to worsen until a sensationalist news campaign by The Telegraph exposed the sorry state of the hotel in the 1990s. The hotel was privatized in November 2005 with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers and has been re-christened The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata. After an extensive restoration, a part of the property was reopened in November 2013. The Lalit Great Eastern offers 244 rooms and suites along with four restaurants and bars, the largest conference and banqueting facility in Kolkata, besides all other five-star deluxe facilities and services.

The Grand Hotel had humble beginnings. In the 1870s Mrs. Annie Monk opened her boarding house at numbers 13, 14 and 15 Chowringhee. In the meantime, Arathoon Stephen, an Armenian from Isfahan had arrived in Calcutta and proceeded to make his fortune in the jewellery business. By the early 20th century he had put together a sizeable fortune and had purchased numbers 16 and 17 Chowringhee. Soon he purchased Mrs. Monk's boarding house and number 18 Chowringhee as well, and proceeded to develop all the properties together into the hotel that came to be known as the Grand Hotel.

The Grand Hotel had humble beginnings as Mrs. Monte's Boarding House at 13, Jawahar Lal Nehru Road. Acquired by the real-estate baron Arrathoon Stephen, it turned into a 3-story 500-room hotel. Acquired by hotelier Mohan Singh Oberoi in 1938, it became the Oberoi Grand. The hotel got a major lift during World War II when about 4000 soldiers were billeted there and would party regularly. Events like the U.S. Marines' Ball at the hotel remind visitors of such times.

City parks

Maidan means "field" in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu

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