Calcutta Collectorate

Anindita Mazumder

At any other site it would have dominated the landscape but with such glamorous neighbours – the General Post Office and the Writers’ Buildings its fate was sealed long back even before construction began. The beautiful, symmetrical and ornate red brick building cushioned between the grandiose GPO and the modern edifice of the Reserve Bank of India, known to the officepara at Dalhousie as the Calcutta Collectorate deserves more attention than it usually gets.

Even the name – Calcutta Collectorate is a misnomer of sorts; because Calcutta till date actually does not have a collectorate at present. Most of the magisterial powers are vested with the Commissioner of Police and those of the collector rests with the First LA (Land Acquisition) officer, Calcutta who does not even have an office in this building. It actually houses the offices of the Collector of Stamp Duty and Revenue as well as the Collector of Excise Duty. Its most important inhabitant is the Divisional Commissioner of Presidency Range, usually a senior officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) though his authority has waned considerably over the years.

Brian Paul Bach in his book titled ‘Calcutta’s Edifice’ wrote, “The Buildings of a Great City the label ‘Collectorate’ was applied to the building because it partially occupied the site where the old Collectorate once stood; before it was razed in the 1890s it was the oldest surviving building in the city. The present three-storeyed, red-brick building of the Calcutta Collectorate was erected in 1892 on a plot of land measuring 2 bighas, 11 cottahs and 5 chittacks which formed part of the Old Fort William. The building had cost Rs 3, 54,589 and provides 20,203 square feet of office accommodation.

The Office of the Collector, the lineal descendent of the Zemindar of olden days dates from 1700. The Deputy Collector was a native and was, therefore, called Black Zemindar. Govindram Mitter was the most famous among the Black Zemindars. JZ Holwell of Black Hole fame was once a Zemindar of Calcutta.

According to HEA Cotton the Office of the Collector was initially situated in 1783 on the southern side of Lall Bazar with the old jail to its east and in 1820 it shifted to the crossing of Chowringhee Road and Park Street. In the 1830’s the Collector had his office at the Old Mint. From Church Lane the Collector moved to Bankshall Court, the three-storeyed building which was formerly the office of the Revenue Board.

The present structure was built when the energetic Sir Charles Elliot was Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, a man who shared the same passion for building edifices as his predecessors Sir Richard Temple and Sir Ashley Eden (who gave Writers’ Buildings its grand façade). The Collectorate along with GPO stands on a spot where once the Old Fort had stood before being razed to ground by the cannonballs fired by the Nawab’s soldiers.

Bach adds that along with the GPO and the Eastern Railway Building, the building’s foundations were excavated amidst the central remains of old Fort William. Apparently, construction workers faced much difficulty while clearing them away. The dungeon which must have been the proverbial ‘Black Hole’ was identified in the process. In fact the original Holwell monument had once stood in front of the site occupied by this building before it was removed on orders of Marquis of Hastings. It was due to the endeavours of Lord Curzon that a marble plaque was put up on the inside of the gate dividing the GPO and the Collectorate Building marking the spot where Black Hole was. Architecturally also the building is significant since unlike most others in the northern and western part of Dalhousie Square which have a distinct Victorian look the Collectorate is a mix of late Victorian and early Edwardian style of architecture as evident from its clean and clutterless, symmetrical facade. Built in the late Victorian years this building has the French Renaissance Mansard roof and complements the adjacent Writers’ buildings.

The arched entranceway is a focal point, as it opens into a central courtyard instead of the building’s interior. Above the arch is an ascending meridian of much detail, consisting of two stories windows, arched and selectively shuttered. The arch is topped by an attic assemblage lending that grand look. Two wonderful corner towers look indeed festive, hardly conveying any sense of the sober officialdom which reigns inside. The finials which generously adorn them seem to dance like ceremonial flames. Undoubtedly, it is one of the city’s best examples of the Edwardian style, which began during the final decade of Queen Victoria’s reign. And atop it all, a two metre-high cast iron fence promenades around the ridges, and strange circular windows on a sloping roof, appear to be like fish eyes or camera lenses, spy out the realm of the BBD Bag to the east.

In 1973, there was a proposal to demolish the Collectorate and erect an 18-storeyed building in its site. There was a furore over this proposition and the monstrous skyscraper was thankfully shelved. Otherwise, a similar anarchy would have taken place as had happened in case of the old Custom House which gave way to the eyesore – the modern Reserve Bank of India building.