Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a CenturyMassey, Montague
History
Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century
Massey, Montague
Calcutta (India) -- Description and travel; Massey, Montague -- Travel -- India -- Calcutta
[Illustration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_. Corporation Street,
showing Hindustan Buildings--Proprietors, Hindustan Co-operative
Insurance Society, Ltd.]
[Illustration: Hindustan Buildings--Proprietors, Hindustan
Co-operative Insurance Society, Ltd., Corporation Street]
[Illustration: Old site of the present Continental Hotel, Chowringhee]
[Illustration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Hotel Continental,
Chowringhee]
At the Free School Street end new buildings have taken the place of
old and antiquated ones. I well recollect there was for some time a
house on the left-hand side which was occupied by the assistants of
the old Oriental Bank, all of whom I knew very well, and it went by
the name of the Oriental Bank Chummery. They subsequently removed to
one of the Panch Kotee houses in Rawdon Street, where they used to
give dances and other entertainments. The house next to their old one
in Kyd Street suddenly collapsed one day and was reduced to a heap of
rubbish, but fortunately no one was hurt. At the time of the
Exhibition in 1883-84 there was an entrance to the grounds of the
Museum alongside the archway over the end of the tank, which has
recently been bricked up, close to which dining rooms were opened, and
the elite of Calcutta society often dined there during the months that
the Exhibition was open.
PARK STREET.
I have already observed that there were no shops in this part of the
town, and there was nothing to distinguish it from any other
residential street such as Middleton Street and Harington Street. As
far as I recollect Hall & Anderson were the first to establish the
new departure in this respect. The site on which they have built their
premises was an old, tumble-down godown, in the occupation of some
French people of the name of Dollet, who sold French wines, brandy,
and condiments. The row of shops immediately on the left, facing
Russell Street, styled Park House, are built on a portion of the
compound and the site of the stables and coach house of the old 56,
Park Street, at one time occupied by the _late_ J. Thomas, senior
partner of the old firm of R. Thomas & Co. Proceeding further down the
street on the same side we come to the row of shops extending as far
as the corner of Free School Street. These, from the Light Horse Club,
are built on ground that in the old days was part of a large compound
attached to the girls' department of the old Doveton College, and the
Park Street Thanna, which I observe has been lately pulled down, was
the girls' school. Of course we all know that Park Mansions are built
on the site of the Doveton College for boys. The large, imposing
looking house on the opposite side, No. 24, was formerly occupied by
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal before Belvedere became the official
residence.
[Illustration: _Photo by Johnston & Hoffmann._ The old United Service
Club.]
[Illustration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_. Present-day view of
United Service Club.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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