Art and Culture

Dalhousie Square: Timekeeping with Kolkata's British gems

by TRANS WORLD FEATURES | @twfindia 13 Jan 2025, 11:10 am

Award-winning photographer Bijoy Chowdhury's 2025 calendar is an ode to the crowning glory of Kolkata's British heritage district-Dalhousie Square

The Kolkata Dalhousie heritage zone, also known as Benoy-Badal-Dinesh (BBD) Bagh, is a treasure trove of colonial architecture and history, offering a glimpse into the city's past as the capital of British India.

"The city of Kolkata remains unknown to us to a great extent if we do not go through the iconic character of Dalhousie Square," says award-winning photographer Bijoy Chowdhury, whose annual calendar for the year 2025 is an ode to Kolkata's original business nerve centre bearing the city's quintessential British legacy.

Calendars have evolved far beyond their utilitarian function of tracking time. They have become canvases for art, creativity, cultural expression, and historical documentation.

Chowdhury, who is also a documentary filmmaker, produces a calendar every year to be gifted to his professional friends and associates with the central theme of some interesting facet of Kolkata, the city that triggers his creative quest. He chose Dalhousie Square, the crowning glory of Kolkata's architectural marvels, for 2025.

Named after Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor General of India Dalhousie is now also known as B. B. D. Bag after three renowned Bengali revolutionaries- Binoy, Badal and Dinesh.

This colonial hub of Kolkata represents the epicentre of local administration adorned with many architectural marvels of the British era.

Writers’ Building, GPO (General Post Office), Kolkata Stock Exchange, the Calcutta High Court, to name a few bear the ample testimony of Greek and Roman influences with their amazing elements of columns, arches and domes.

This year,  Bijoy Chowdhury made it a subject of his annual calendar everyone waits for. The series of 12 black and white images in the calendar captures the Dalhousie heritage hub and life around it, in its splendor.

"Since my father’s office was at Church Lane in this locality, I used to travel here with him quite off and on to look and feel the awesome nature of the imperial buildings. Still now I roam around this heritage site whenever I manage time to amaze at their majestic identity," says Chowdhury. 

"In this year, it is my humble effort to present a ‘slice of colonial flavour of England’ in Kolkata through some elegant architectures I had clicked here at different points of time," he adds.

According to the World Monuments Fund, Dalhousie Square is one of south Asia’s few surviving colonial centers, and it is unique in India because much of its peripheral environment remains intact.