Grand Hotel Calcutta’s Icon
Anindita Mazumder
A few minutes before the bells rang in the New Year, a waiter or two brought in a dozen piglets – one for each month and set them free in the brightly-lit ballroom. The tables were laden with lavish festive gifts like porcelain, perfume, silver, gold and iced champagne, the last one catalysing the wildness of pursuit as the guests ran after the squealing piglets, since it was believed that the rotund creature brought good luck. If you could catch one before the old year ran out it was all yours to keep.
No wonder it was this kind of extravagant entertainment that gave Armenian tycoon, Arathoon Stephen’s Grand Hotel an iconic stature in Colonial Calcutta’s social circles. It upheld the rich tradition maintained by Harmonic or London Tavern in the early days of Colonialism, followed by Spence’s Hotel before 1830s and Wilson Hotel later renamed as Great Eastern, set up by the great confectioner, David Wilson in 1840s.
Located in Chowringhee which was the new centre of growth with the coming up of the new fort, it was one of the new houses that lined up the street, usually square or rectangular blocks, having two or three storey, of Italianate designs, pedimented windows and balustrade roof parapets. The view overlooking the wide open Esplanade and beyond it the river bank was undoubtedly spectacular. The site belonged to Colonel Grand who won the plot in a lottery and had built a Sussex-inspired country house.
By the time Mrs Annie Monk acquired the property on plot number 13 in 1870s in order to set up her own boarding house it was in an ill-kempt state. Though there were complaints of general uncleanliness, chipped and cracked crockery and cobwebs Mrs Monk made quite a tidy sum enough to acquire four other properties. Before the end of the Century she returned to Ireland having enough to live a comfortable retired life and her property passed on to the Armenian baron, Arathoon Stephen. One of the properties included a rundown theatre which continued to exist till it was burnt down in a fire in 1911. It provided Arathoon Stephen a perfect opportunity for redevelopment after acquiring the properties of Monk.
The nucleus of the imposing structure consisted of five houses facing Chowringhee; No. 16 formed main entrance to the hotel along with a billiard saloon, bar and lounge for the convenience of people attending the nearby Theatre Royal while No. 17 stood at the extreme south-west end of the hotel. Montague Massey recollected that these two houses were once occupied by an institution called the Calcutta Club, connected by a plank bridge. The members of the club were merchants, brokers, public service men and sundry. Eventually, it was wound up and the houses were let out as residential flats and boarding houses. At one time No. 16 was converted into the Royal Hotel by M. Jack Andrews, former proprietor of old Spence’s Hotel before being acquired by Mrs Monk.
The elegant looking hotel was built on a plot measuring 14 acres, around a garden in its courtyard to ensure that airy and well-ventilated effect. It was designed by an English architect-Wilkinson who also designed the Mount Everest Hotel in Darjeeling for Stephen. The design was essentially Neo-Classical with baroque touches. There were rusticated quoins and pediments broken at the lintel level to accommodate heavy keystones. Initially, there were three storeys in the building whose frontage extended along the Chowringhee Road and by 1918 a further storey was added with heavily corbelled balcony and a wide front verandah at pavement level which gave shades to the ground floor shops. It was a popular viewing point for first floor guests though doubts were raised about its stability by the chief engineer of Calcutta Corporation, William MacCabe.
Grand Hotel turned out to be the place to be if you wanted to be for food, drink or to dance. Stephen managed the other property, Empire Theatre and the drinks during interval were served from Grand’s bar. Globe was run by Arathoon Martin, another family member which primarily offered boxing and wrestling as chief entertainment. No wonder Grand reigned in the lively social circles of Calcutta in those decade till the death of Arathoon Stephen in 1927. Typhoid and enteric diseases struck resulting in six deaths among guests while many family members were also afflicted. The hotel’s drainage system was suspected and it resulted in its closing down in 1937.
Fortune stepped in, this time in the form of the enterprising Mohan Singh Oberoi who had risen from a clerical post in Cecil Hotel, Simla to become first the manager and then lessee of Carlton Hotel in Simla later renamed as Clarke’s. He negotiated a lease with Mercantile Bank, the official liquidator of Stephen. The bank wanted a European manager and Oberoi appointed DW Grove who gave him his first job in 1922. Together they refurbished the plumbing and drainage and brought back the experienced staff. After running the hotel successfully for some years he finally bought the property in 1943.
As the Second World War spread to the Eastern Frontiers, Oberoi Grand was requisitioned by the army and nearly 4,000 personnel, primarily American and British were housed here and partied every day.
Even today the century old Oberoi Grand remains one of the finest gems in the luxury chain of Oberoi Hotels spread throughout the globe. And it is easily-recognised colonnaded arcade makes it an iconic landmark of Calcutta.