2
BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
19
th annual edition
St John’s Church, Kolkata during conservation
The Historic
AnglicanChurches
of Kolkata
Manish Chakraborti
K
olkata, formerly
Calcutta,
is the capital of West Bengal and
stands on the east bank of the
Hooghly River. The city grew from three
small villages to a thriving trading post with
the arrival of Job Charnock, the East India
Company administrator who chose it as the
company’s Bengal headquarters. It became
the capital city of the Indian subcontinent in
1772
following the establishment of British
rule and remained so until New Delhi
became the capital in 1911. Kolkata is now a
teeming megalopolis of 15 million people.
The city has been blessed with architectural
wealth. The ensemble of grandiose old
buildings in Dalhousie Square, the historic
seat of British administration and commerce
from where the Indian subcontinent
was governed, is rich in Georgian, high
Victorian and late Gothic architecture,
much of it surviving in its original form.
The World Monuments Fund (WMF)
recognised Dalhousie Square as a significant
historic city centre that needs to be
protected for posterity, and it was placed on
the WMF list of ‘Watch’ sites in 2004 and
again in 2006. Over the last ten years or
so, awareness has been growing in Kolkata,
and in India generally, of the importance of
conserving historic buildings and places.
This article is based on the author’s
experience over the past six years working
as a conservation architect at the three most
historically significant Anglican churches in
the city: St John’s Church, St James’s Church
and St Paul’s Cathedral. These three historic
Anglican landmarks, which have been part
of the Church of North India since 1970,
are an integral part of Kolkata’s historical,
