Pixelated Memories: Walter L. B. Granville

Showing posts with label Walter L. B. Granville. Show all posts

August 14, 2013

General Post Office, Calcutta

"Driving southward down the western side of Dalhousie Square we have the General Post Office and some magnificent commercial buildings on our left. The dome of the Post Office is one of the most conspicuous land-marks of Calcutta. The building was designed by Mr. W. B. Granville, and completed in 1868. The flight of steps at the corner formed by Koila Ghat Street and Charnock Place (i.e., the western side of Dalhousie Square), and the spacious Corinthian Colonnade scarcely fall short of being impressive."

- Rev. Walter K. Firminger, "Thacker's Guide to Calcutta"

“Calcutta?? What’s there to see in Calcutta??”
I’ve lost count of how many times my friends have exclaimed this statement in astonishment, especially when I mention having visited some monument/structure that not even most Calcuttans would have heard of. For most Indians, it would be either Victoria Memorial or Howrah Bridge or the Durga Puja celebrations that define Calcutta – that’s the very problem with Indian tourism – by letting one or two monuments/places to become the representatives of a city/state, we relegate the rest of the architectural heritage that city/state might possess to obscurity. But can a couple of places define Calcutta’s art & architecture in its entirety – what then of the famous St. John’s Church Complex where Calcutta’s history, in the form of the mortal remains of Job Charnock (the guy who established the city as a bastion of British supremacy in India), is buried?? Or the gigantic Tipu Sultan Mosque close to the Esplanade Square that was built by the exiled family of the mighty sovereign of Mysore? The invisible Chinese clubs of Tiretta Bazaar & Thai monasteries of Tangra that bring to the fore the flavors of Asia in this ancient city? But, the most endearing thing about this beautiful city is that here the heritage is not hidden from the masses, it isn’t the exclusive of tourists – Calcutta’s interesting & equally amazing history is part & parcel of the city’s everyday life – the city breathes its history, it knows how to live it. In fact, the city folk have amalgamated the city’s architectural & cultural heritage so integrally into their daily life that structures such as the Church of St. John or the General Post Office (GPO) haven’t been turned into isolated tourist spots that remain only skeletons of their erstwhile magnificence & glory; instead these structures still serve the city’s population in their original capacity, be it administration, relaxation or worship.

Calcutta General Post Office, view from Writer's Building

I agree that at times it is hard to appreciate Calcutta’s beauty; the city has turned into a congested mess with its traffic & crowds – the whizzing yellow taxis, the people scurrying to reach their destinations, the hawkers & the beggars – nobody is ready to stop for even a minute; leave alone photographing a structure without swarms of people buzzing around it, at times the milling crowds make it difficult to even get a full view of a structure. But though now dilapidated, these structures still bring to the front the glory the city enjoyed first as the headquarters of the mighty British East India Company & later as the capital of entire Indian subcontinent when it had been colonized by Britain.

The GPO, a magnificent white building, with a huge dome gracing its front end & Corinthian columns (slender fluted columns, topped by decorative leaves & scrolls) along its sides, is a brilliant example of the simplistic Edwardian architecture that was prevalent in Britain from 1901-14. What attracted me to the post office?? Didn’t I tell you of my interest in philately?? What better place to buy stamps to satiate my philatelic appetite than one of the oldest post offices in the country, one that reeks of history from each of its crack & crevice. The building was designed by Walter L. B. Granville (1819-1874), the same architect who also designed the Indian Museum (refer Pixelated Memories - Indian Museum), Calcutta High Court & the University of Calcutta (later destroyed). I have added links to the architect’s life history as well as the museum that I had visited on an earlier occasion in this article’s footer. The construction of the GPO started in 1864 & it was handed over to the postal department in 1868. It was commissioned by the British Government of Bengal to ease the administration of the postal & telegraph network of the province of Bengal; it has since then served as the chief post office of Bengal.

Believe it or not, that magnificent dome looks small but is actually 220-feet high!!

Sadly, the crowd at the GPO began thinning after the advent of modern lines of communication such as email, telephones & SMS texting – the GPO has fallen on bad times & the bulk of post passing through it has reduced drastically, the structure remains more of a tribute to the glorious past. It stands at the centre of all posts passing through Calcutta, but also as a memorial to the city’s erstwhile position at the world stage. The GPO also has further gory history associated with it – it is built at the site of Fort William, the British outpost at Calcutta, that was the site of the “Black Hole Tragedy” of 1756 AD – a singular event where several British men & women were imprisoned in a small dungeon by then Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, leading to several deaths by asphyxiation & panic – an action that provoked the army of East India Company led by Robert Clive to attack the Nawab & impose heavy sanctions on him. The Company then became the virtual rulers of Bengal (of course, now the scale of the tragedy & the motives behind Clive’s attack are also under dispute – see post Pixelated Memories - Black Hole Memorial for the complete details). Along one of the staircases of the GPO, brass plates have been embedded in the floor to mark the dungeon where the “Black Hole” incident took place – however not many people are aware of this aspect of the GPO’s history. This is where the British rule in India started, sadly the brass plates are imperceptible & difficult to spot, just like the country’s history remains remote to the masses.

The plaque & the brass lines added to remind visitors of the Black Hole Tragedy (Photo courtesy - Rangandatta.wordpress.com)

Standing in the courtyard of the GPO, one can see history writ all over its newly whitewashed walls, the massive pillars seem to reflect pride & might at having carried the weight of the huge dome as well as the load of the entire communication service of Calcutta. The GPO has spawned an entire class of traders around its premises – there are some who sell envelopes, first-day covers, post cards & currency coins (the Reserve Bank is situated next to the GPO), others read & write letters for the uneducated, many others would perform legal paperwork & prepare documents for their patrons, some would even bring along their makeshift offices (consisting of rickety wooden tables & chairs) along with typewriters to draft letters for those who aren’t so fluent with the language of official communication.

One can see the GPO’s 220-feet high dome, complete with the big clock that graces its face & the Sanchi three-lion motif (the emblem of Indian state) from across the large water tank (locally known as “Lal Dighi”) that separates the GPO & the magnificent Writer’s Building (office of the Chief Minister of Bengal, refer Pixelated Memories - Writers' Building). Along with Writer’s Building, St. John’s Church (refer Pixelated Memories - St. John's Church) & the Raj Bhavan (residence of the Governor of Bengal), the GPO has become one of the defining landmarks of BBD Bagh Area, an old locality boasting of colonial architecture complete with pillars, idols, & imposing facades.

I'm in love with this place!! - The Philatelic Bureau associated with the GPO building

On the inside, the GPO is much like any normal government office in India – clerks manning their stations, bundles of files stacked on & around their tables, many of these covered with thick layers of dust, gunny bags filled with papers & documents stacked along the corners, slow-rotating fans that creak more than they rotate, long queues of visitors lining up to get their work done. A Postal Museum was added to the GPO in 1884 & has on display a collection of stamps and postal artifacts such as letterboxes & seals. The GPO also boasts of a Philatelic Bureau which is a stamp collector’s delight, it was here that I bought stamps & first-day covers worth Rs 500 (as an indicator, except for the stamps, the entire trip cost me Rs 300, including Rs 200 for travel from Durgapur!!). The place is decked up with stamps on all sides, even the walls are adorned with large replicas of newly issued stamps, posters & information bulletins about Indian postal system.

It has even featured on a stamp.. (Photo courtesy - Indianpost.com)

Postage stamps worth 40 paise depicting the GPO were also issued by the postal department on its centenary celebrations in 1967 & 68. Several of those stamps I have in my possession, which brings me back to the question that my friends always pose to me, I answer it with another question - Isn’t it worth visiting a building that has been commemorated on stamps & still stands as a living testimony to the postal department’s establishment & continuing tradition of service to the citizens?

Location: Crossing of Netaji Subhas Road and Koilaghat Street, B.B.D Bagh Area. Ask your way around to Writer's Building from Esplanade Bus/Metro Station (refer Pixelated Memories - Writers' Building for identification). Traverse the pathway running along the tank opposite the Building to reach the GPO. Don't forget to photograph the ducks & swans that waddle in the tank!
Nearest Bus & Metro Station: Esplanade
Timings: 9am - 5pm
Entrance Fee: Nil
Photography/Video Charges: Nil
Relevant Links -

Suggested Reading -

September 04, 2012

Indian Museum, Calcutta

"There was one class of public building in which the British in India truly excelled: the museum. It was the one class of building, too, that the Indian masses treated with reverence – They called a museum a “House of Wonder”."

- Jan Morris, author "Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj"

One of the most famous landmarks in Calcutta & the commander of unbridled public & media interest, the Indian Museum at Jawahar Lal Nehru Street witnesses long queues of visitors every morning outside its ticket counter. Eager to get into the building they refer to as “Jaadughar” (“House of Wonder”), the crowd consists of students, old grandparents accompanied by their grandchildren, foreigners, tourists, research scholars & even the poor & the underclass of the city & its suburbs. The grand white Neoclassical-style building completed in the year 1878 was designed by the famous British architect Walter Granville (who also designed the Calcutta High Court & General Post Office, refer Pixelated Memories - General Post Office. He passed away in the year 1874 & could not see the museum being completed).

A photograph of the museum taken by Francis Frith between the year 1850-70 (Photo courtesy - Oldindianphotos.in)

On the whole, the structure appears at unease with its 21st century surroundings – located next to the Oberoi Grand Hotel, the museum building disappears behind stalls selling stuff like key rings, purses & wallets, second-hand books/magazines/atlases & encyclopedias; there are a few hawkers selling eatables such as pakodas (deep-fried snacks made with gram flour batter), tea, cigarettes & luchi (Bengali deep-fried bread); the vendors who do not yet possess a cart/stall take to sitting on the pavement to display their wares which include bedsheets, melaware cups & other bric-a-brac – it seems as if the whole museum building is going to vanish out of plain sight much like the Sirius Residence in the Harry Potter movies. The issue is further compounded by the presence of a flyover opposite the museum – Walter Granville’s magnificent masterpiece has ceased to resemble its own self; comparing the present-day photographs to the earlier sketches & photographs, one is forced to wonder if development & urbanization are essentially beneficial. In this case, they aren’t, visually, historically or emotionally either. Bronze letters spell out “Indian Museum” in Hindi, English & Bengali while a CCTV camera keeps watch over the passer-bys. A few broken chairs, a movable steel staircase & potbellied & unshaved guards make up the first set of artifacts one notices, definite remnants of a long gone golden age. Thankfully for a museum this old & notorious for being one always at the receiving hand of official apathy & callousness, the visitors won’t forget it & keep flocking day in, day out to see the items on display in their musty, dirt-covered cases & rusty, old hangings.

One of the galleries (Photo courtesy - Wikimedia.org)

A remnant of Italian architecture in this essentially old city, the museum building has been in news for several past years largely for all the wrong reasons – indecent restoration work, thefts & financial irregularities, failed structural additions, locked galleries & uncooperative staff (see the article links at the end of this post).

The oldest & largest museum in the country & one of the first of its kind in all of Asia, the museum had meager beginnings – though the modern structure came into existence in 1874-78, the priceless artifacts & specimens it hosts came from the private collection of Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich who in 1814 convinced the Asiatic Society about the need to start a museum in India & got them to lend him space on their premises for housing his collection which grew as donations from native princes & English officers started to come in, culminating in one of the largest collections of its kind in Asia. Soon the Government granted land to build the museum in its modern form as we know it.

A display depicting the attire & physical features of the Nicobarese tribe (Photo courtesy - Wikimedia.org)

That the building is huge there is no doubt about (it provides over 10,000 square feet area for display), however the measure of its scale cannot be had from the outside – once you are past the ticket counter, rude guards who seem more adept at shouting at visitors & the crowds of large-eyed visitors & get to stand in the courtyard around which this massive three-storey structure takes the form of long colonnaded walkways, it is then that you begin to fathom the nature & number of the wonders that await you. Thus begins the journey of another large-eyed visitor through collections more than two-century old of stuff that ranges from being two-century old to two-million year old, all stacked up right & left for your pleasure till you are out of breathe because of the huge intake of history, art, anthropology & natural sciences you just had!!

A sculpture of Goddess Tara dated back to 10th Century & discovered in Lalitagiri

The simplistically designed building has been divided into several galleries depending on what they feature. The collection is so large that there are specimens spilling everywhere, large Buddha statues & stone reliefs stand in the corridors as if it’s the most natural thing to do!! The museum management, in another instance of bureaucratic idiocy, have allowed still camera photography for a payment of Rs 300 but prohibited video & mobile camera photography, in fact visitors are asked to switch off their mobile phones on entering the premises – what am I supposed to do (I don’t own a camera yet) except look for a chance to click pictures when the guards aren’t looking?? The guards prove to be rude, their idea of stopping tourists from clicking pictures involves confrontation, shouting & shoving the haggled visitors till they delete the photos from their phones & showing them the way out if all else fails – now a Chinese couple might get heckled when you behave so (yeah that’s the first thing we saw when we entered the museum), but three, well-built college students who have spent all their life in Delhi, Haryana & Uttar Pradesh?? Guards zero, Students one; first fix your stupid rules, then lecture us!! Interestingly, even those who possessed a camera & bought photography tickets were being stopped after every few steps by more guards asking to see the tickets. We are just clicking, not stealing artifacts, why get your pants in such a bunch?? The entire museum is under CCTV supervision & the staff appear quickly if a visitors flouts the two basic rules here – “No Photography” & “No touching the cases”. We had a panic moment when a young lady walked up to us in the archaeological gallery & inquired if we were taking photos; I guess our poker face isn’t as good as we thought it was because she did not believe us for a second & pointed towards the CCTV cameras fixed along the ceiling – so that’s why there aren’t any guards in this gallery!! Turned out she was another visitor who then joined us in taking photos, the more the merrier!!

Coming to the galleries, the museum is divided into 6 of them –
1. One of my least favorite galleries, the Geological section is stuffed with millions of stone (precious, ornamental & ordinary), marble & rock specimens filled in glass case upon case. There are few interesting items such as meteorite fragments & fossils thrown in too, but in a gallery this large, looking for them was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Could definitely make do with a change in the arrangement & the usage of signs to point to the different categories of rocks housed (much like a library with shelves marked with subject names). But at least it appealed to my friends studying Metallurgy; they were almost drooling on the cases!

2. The Archaeological Section contains sculptures belonging to the Gandhara & Mathura styles of art, over 50,000 coins from the reign of several emperors dating far back to 5th century BC, carvings & statues from several Buddhist stupas & some Egyptian antiquities. The Egyptian gallery even boasts of a 4,000 year old Mummy. There are hundreds of sculptures, you’ll get tired looking at them but there would be no end in sight!

Another statue, this one read "Manjuari", I don't know what that means

3. The Anthropological Section is one of the most fascinating amongst all the galleries with large display cases depicting the life, attire & habitat of the different tribes living in the subcontinent. Then there is another impressive section that displays the different phases of human evolution – the aesthetic setup is well-designed – the glass panels holding the skeletal remains & the replicas of human ancestors are lit only by single red bulbs that light up only the facial features & lend an eerie air to the scene. A third display is devoted to masks used for rituals by various tribes in the country. To my utter surprise & delight, on display in a separate room is a skeleton (OK, only the skull) of Rajasaurus narmadadeva, the only dinosaur ever found in the Indian subcontinent. This was more than I ever expected!!

Some of the masks in the Mask Gallery (Photo courtesy - Indianmuseumkolkata.org - Mask Gallery)

4. The Art Section has galleries dedicated to textiles, paintings, decorative art objects from different parts of the country. The exhibit also includes jewellery, silverware & ornaments, bone art, wood work, metal pieces, sculptures, carved ivory & rhinoceros horn articles, pottery & such.

5. The Zoological Section, my favorite, boasts of remarkable specimens of flora & fauna – there were deer antlers hung from wall alcoves, a huge walrus is the masterpiece flanked by mammoth & hippopotamus skeletons sprawled on the floor in the center of the room, a gigantic whale skeleton that seemed to be swimming in air since it was hung from the ceiling through bearings nailed in the roof, butterflies in glass cases, animal embryos preserved in bottles, stuffed animal hides & a study of taxidermy, specimens of fish, plant life & several species of insects.

The elephant & hippopotamus specimens (Photo courtesy - Wikimedia.org)

6. We skipped the Industrial Section where botanical specimens bearing upon medicine, agriculture and industry are displayed.

Funded by the Indian Government, the museum is an autonomous organization enshrined in the Constitution of India as “an institute of national importance”, however like most government institutions, the upkeep here is far from good. Most of the display cases are covered with a layer of dust (perhaps the cleaners also cite the rule “Don’t touch the glass cases”!!), half of the sculptures & carvings kept in the open courtyard are at the mercy of natural elements, the zoological samples have started showing signs of decay & many of them look like old, dirty teddy bears rather than real animals. Thankfully, the museum is headed towards much needed repair, restoration & conservation work as part of its bicentennial celebrations in 2014; in fact some repair work was already in full swing when we visited the place with structural additions being made/removed, strengthening & painting of walls, restoration of specimens – some of the galleries were locked on account of the same. We do hope that the authorities & workers won’t resort to shoddy repair work resulting in structural damage as has been noted in newspaper reports to have occurred some years earlier. As mentioned earlier, the guards were rude brutes, however once you ignore them the rest of the staff is pretty friendly & knowledgeable – the guy at Zoology section was a trove of knowledge & well-versed with the details of the specimens stacked. Interestingly the Zoological Survey of India & the Geological Survey of India are offshoots of this very museum!

Embryo specimens (Photo courtesy - Davidboyk.com)

An in-house publication division stocks books (on various topics such as history, paleontology, archaeology & Buddhism), scaled-down replicas of the various sculptures & Buddha statues on display in the museum, postcard sets (depicting Indian mythology (primarily representation of paintings dealing with certain events in the life of the mythological king Krishna, considered to be an incarnation of the Hindu God of life & nourishment, Vishnu), important archaeological finds (the lion emblem from Sarnath, Yakshini statue), Mughal paintings & such). The statues & books were quite expensive so I had to be content with buying the postcards (I bought all the sets though – the “About Me” of this blog does list philately as one of my hobbies).

Despite its reputation as an institution stuck in the thrall of bureaucratic high-handedness & ignorance & despite the general belief of museums being insanely dull & boring, this museum is actually a treasure trove – though you might have to oversee the dust-coated display cases (you can actually trace your name in the dust for other visitors to see!) or plaques containing so much information (yes I know the statue is old, can’t you be specific as to how old instead of just noting “Old”??), but nonetheless the museum does prove to be impressive & promises to increase your knowledge several folds while being a visual delight. Not only just nerds but everyone visiting or living in Calcutta should frequent the place at least once, it deserves it. And don’t touch the cases please, the guards are prickly!

Sphinx statue from Egypt (Photo courtesy - Wikipedia.org)

Location: Next to the Oberoi Calcutta, Park Street. Five minutes walk from Esplanade bus terminus
Nearest Metro Station: Park Street
How to reach: Buses & taxis are available from different parts of the city to the museum. One can walk from Esplanade to the museum.
Open: All days, except Mondays & national holidays.
Timings : 10 am - 5 pm (March-November) & 10 am - 4:30 pm (December-February)
Entry Fees: Rs. 10 (Indians) & Rs 150 (Foreigners)
Photography Charges: Rs. 300, restricted by permission.
Video Charges: Prohibited
Time required for sight seeing: 3 hrs
Relevant Links -

Pixelated Memories - General Post Office

Suggested Reading -

August 14, 2013

General Post Office, Calcutta

September 04, 2012

Indian Museum, Calcutta

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