Flagstaff House

Anindita Mazumder

Long before our colonial masters thought of hill stations, the Governor Generals and Viceroys escaped the stifling heat of Calcutta by travelling upstream of the Hooghly, enjoying its cool breezes, to their weekend retreat at Barrackpore which provided them the much needed sojourn from governance. Our present Governors, though a mere shadow of the pomp and show of their British predecessors still spend some time at the “villa”, the Flagstaff House. In this edition of Calcutta Chronicle, we tour the house and its vast lawns and find every inch replete with history.

Post independence, the original Government House, a classic mansion built in 1913 at Barrackpore, was converted into a police hospital; instead the adjoining Flagstaff House, once the private secretary’s bungalow, was converted into a weekend retreat for the Governor.

The house, built between 1863 and 1865, owes its name to the flagstaff erected nearby; the flagstaff was actually the mast of HMS Kent, the flagship of Admiral Watson which was so badly damaged during the bombardment of Chandernagore in 1757 that “she had to be beached and broken up at Barrackpore”. It may be worth pointing out that Barrackpore was one of the oldest British Cantonment and derived its name from the huge barracks set up to house the armed forces.

Barrackpore was also the summer retreat of the Viceroy and he would travel in a grand barge while a flotilla of boats would carry his retinue. They would come ashore at Nishan Ghat (boats were the only means of travelling since Lord Wellesley grand plans to built a connecting, straight road between the two residences did not mature owing to the tightfistedness of the Company’s directors) and then walk through the great lawns, inspect the guard of honour near the flagstaff and proceed to the Government House. A lighthouse still stands in the lawns, once built to guide the boats ashore but has since then fallen into disuse for obvious reasons. There is however, a water reservoir, more than 200-years-old which is still in use.

Around the great house, in the lawns, stands King George V, ably accompanied by Lord Mayo, Minto and Curzon and others who had once ruled the empire in India for the royalty. Twelve statues, 11 in bronze and one in marble, of British personages had once adorned the city before they were somewhat ingloriously removed in 1969 to Flagstaff House. Since then, they have been suitably rehabilitated on the picturesque grounds of the Flagstaff House.

The former Governor, Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi during one of his frequent visits to Barrackpore, had observed that “the Raj statues were the house’s true residents.”

“All the statues looked quite happy in those precincts, enjoying the relative calm of the gardens and the breeze from the river. They seemed to prefer the relative privacy of the place and the genuinely interested visitor’s gaze, over the noisy neglect (and worse) which their original perches in the heart of the city must have been their lot for years,” wrote Mr Gandhi, incidentally, the grandson of the first post independence Governor of Bengal, C Rajagopalachari.

There is also a cenotaph house, modelled after a Greek temple and built by Governor General, Lord Minto (his equestrian statue is close by) between the original government house and the present one. It was a “tribute of personal feeling and respect to the memory” of the 24 officers who fell in the conquest of Java and Mauritius. Later on, another tablet was added by Lord Ellenborough.

The caretaker told us that Mr Gandhi often held seminars at the cenotaph house and kerosene lamps were lit to illuminate the way from the ghats in the evening, in a bid to give his guests, a feel of the past era.

There is a huge peepul tree close by under which outdoor forays are still held, quite like the banyan tree at the Government House. While the Governor Generals entertained their guests in the open under its leafy canopy locals say Mangal Pandey was hanged from that very banyan tree.

There is also a camphor tree right beside the Governor’s suite; at a time when air conditioning was still unheard of, the home grown concept was that the cold river breeze would be fragranced by the camphor and cool the chambers in turn.

Gandhi had also earmarked a small patch in the huge lawn for growing herbal, medicinal plants. The then first lady of West Bengal, Tara Gandhi had also noted 29 species of birds who are regular visitors of the verdant greens.

On the gardens there was also the skeletal remain of a bullock cart. When asked, the caretaker confided that Barrackpore still served as the kitchen garden, supplying vegetables to the Raj Bhavan. Earlier, before the arrival of trucks or other motorised goods carriers, the vegetables were transported by bullock carts which left every morning and came back in the evening!

Inside the house, there are wonderful, rare pictures on the walls and antique furniture. The four rooms including the Governor’s bedroom and guest room are simply decorated. A painting of Lord Clive holding the dewani is on the walls of the sitting room. There is also a clock ensconced in the dead trunk of a tree whose working seems to be quite complicated, though fool-proof. The caretaker explained to us that the three sentries who stood on guard during night time each had a key with which the clock had to be wound every two hours; however, it could be opened only with a master key which was in the possession of the head sentry. Hence, if any sentry played truant he would be inevitably discovered; no wonder, Britannia ruled us for two hundred years!

As a weekend retreat of the Governor, the Flagstaff House remains guarded to public eye but permission can be sought from Raj Bhavan for a visit.