Streetwise Kolkata: How the Raj Bhavan’s construction brought changes to Council House Street

The street gets its name from the old Council House that once stood here, erected in 1764 (Express photo by Neha Banka)

In his book ‘Old Fort William in Bengal, a Selection of Official Documents Dealing with Its History’ (1906), author C R Wilson writes, “The Fort William Council, decided to construct a new council room in 1765 as ‘the present Council room being from its Situation greatly exposed to the heat of the Weather and from the Vicinity to the Public Office very ill calculated for conducting the Business of the Board with the privacy that is often requisite’.”

The British Library describes this as: “Plate three from the second set of Thomas and William Daniell’s ‘Oriental Scenery’. By the end of the 18th century, Calcutta had become a flourishing city with many neo-classical public buildings flanking the north side of the Esplanade. The Council House was erected in 1764, and served originally both for the meetings of the Company’s Council, which ran the affairs of Bengal, and also as the Governor’s residence.” (Photo credit: The British Library)

That makes this street among the oldest in the city. The Council House Street also finds mention in several old maps of Calcutta, including British lithographer Mark Wood’s map of Calcutta (1784), which is one of the earliest of the city.

In the book ‘Calcutta: A Cultural and Literary History’, author Krishna Dutta gives some more information about the environs of this street that cannot be subtracted from discussions pertaining to the street’s history. Dutta points to the memoirs of James Augustus Hickey, who started the first printed newspaper in the Indian subcontinent, Hickey’s Bengal Gazette.

Dutta mentions Hickey writing how after the arrival of Richard Colley Wellesley in 1798, the new governor-general purchased land surrounding the Government House, now called the Raj Bhavan.

“His lordship determined to build a palace suitable to his magnificent ideas, and such a one as would be proper for the residence of the British Governor-General of India. This he immediately caused to be commenced, partly upon the site of the old Government House, but taking in the Council House and about sixteen other handsome private mansions, many of them not having been erected about five years, the whole of which were pulled down, the ground upon which they had stood being cleared away to create a superb open square, in the middle of which his meditated palace was to stand,” Hickey writes. Wellesley’s expansion plans resulted in the demolition of the Council House.

The tree-lined Council House Street has managed to retain some of its oldest surviving buildings. (Express photo by Neha Banka)

In her book ‘Calcutta: Past and Present’ (1905), author Kathleen Blechynden writes “Adjoining Government House, to the west, stood Council House, the two buildings together occupying the width of the present Government House grounds.”

Two years after the end of the First World War, which saw the participation of over a million troops from the Indian subcontinent, in August 1920, the Indian Clearing Office was established on 1, Council House Street. According to a news report from that year published in The Pioneer Mail newspaper, the office was established to clear enemy debts.

The tree-lined Council House Street has managed to retain some of its oldest surviving buildings. In addition to the imposing HSBC building and the Office of the Accountant General, it also covers a part of the grounds of St. John’s Church. Also located here is the Calcutta High Court’s Mediation Center and the Reserve Bank of India building.