BCD 2017

46 T H E B U I L D I N G C O N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C T O R Y 2 0 1 7 – put traditional culture and heritage tourism at the heart of the state economy, and in Bombay much was achieved through the work of the late Shyam Chainani, one of the great pioneers of conservation in India. Among leading UK-trained conservation architects in India who are well known here are Vikas Dilawari in Bombay, Benny Kuriakose in Madras and South India, Gurmeet Rai in Delhi and especially in Punjab, Aishwarya Tipnis and Gaurav Sharma in Delhi and North India, Manish Chakraborti, and Nilina Deb Lal and Sharan Lal in Calcutta and East India. All maintain British connections and all work to maintain international standards of conservation, often against considerable odds. Current arrangements for protection are in their infancy and there is, as yet and in general, little public understanding of, or support for, conservation. To quote Vikas Dilawari : Government-owned public buildings, which are major landmarks in our cities, suffer from ill-informed, ad hoc and unwanted repairs. Even worse, privately-owned and tenanted residential buildings suffer from zero maintenance, partly due to the Rent Control Act , and since no repair is carried out, these structures dilapidate and are increasingly under threat from redevelopment. There is a complete lack of patronage and, as a result, no good craftsmen. Cheap alternatives to good work are always preferred. We, unlike colleagues in the West, have to struggle all the time. We have to be lucky enough to find good clients, who understand and appreciate craftsmanship: only then are we able to find and train the craftsmen. The conservation process, as it has been developed in the UK over the past 50 years, is not yet understood in India and it is in this area and in the development of trade skills, that there is a great UK contribution to be made. A new campaign – CAL, ‘Calcutta’s Architectural Legacy’– led by the distinguished writer Amit Chaudhuri is now mobilising opinion in the city, very much as the amenity societies and SAVE did so many years ago in the UK. Perhaps surprisingly, the leaders in the promotion of ‘shared heritage’ are the Danes, whose work in the former settlement of Serampore, including the restoration of the Lutheran church of St Olav, is directly supported by the Danish Government, with Copenhagen architect Flemming Aalund and York-trained Manish Chakraborti. One can only hope that where Denmark has led, the UK will follow! Calcutta was to a significant extent a Scottish city: 40 per cent of the Europeans in the city were Scots and the links with Dundee through the jute trade were particularly strong. In 2009 a Scotland-West Bengal memorandum of understanding on matters of culture and heritage was signed by the then Scottish Culture Minister Mike Russell, but sadly, little has yet resulted from it. A new charity on the building preservation trust model, the Asia Scotland Trust (AST), is being established to support conservation in the city, in local partnerships and with advice from Simpson & Brown in Edinburgh and Alleya & Associates in Calcutta. The AST has two projects under development: St Andrews Kirk and the Scottish Church Collegiate School. Both are prominent ‘heritage buildings’, recognised as such by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. These are being regarded as pilot projects, to be partly funded locally and partly from funds raised in the UK: and there is plenty more to do! St Andrew’s was built in 1815 for the Church of Scotland, on a prominent site in Dalhousie Square, adjacent to the Writers’ Building, which is now the seat of the government of West Bengal. Like its namesake in Edinburgh’s New Town, its ‘spire over portico’ formula follows that of James Gibbs’ St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. Its traditional flat ‘Indian Terrace’ roof, finished with lime concrete and jaggery (a traditional waterproofing admixture made from sugarcane1), was replaced in the mid-20th century with an ‘agricultural’ pitched roof of lightweight steel trusses and corrugated asbestos-cement sheets, with galvanised steel gutters. Both the design and the materials of this roof have failed badly and are no longer able to cope with the monsoon rains. The project is to replace the roof and to restore the ceiling of its fine classical interior. The Scottish Church Collegiate School was established in 1830 in Beadon Street, North Calcutta by missionary Alexander Duff for the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Duff was an influential figure and one of those – with Raja Rammohun Roy – credited with the vital decision to make English the language of education and administration in India. The handsome classical building, built like most of Calcutta from brick and lime plaster, is in very poor condition externally; the central stairs are barely safe, and improvements are badly needed. The project is for a comprehensive St Andrew’s, Dalhousie Square, Calcutta: built in 1815 for the Church of Scotland, the church’s ‘spire over portico’ formula follows that of James Gibbs’ St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square, London. (Photo: Rangan Datta) Britain’s architectural heritage in India includes public buildings, churches, banks and warehouses but ordinary street architecture forms an important part of this legacy too. As shown here, much of it is now in a severe state of decay. Vines emerging from the Scottish Church Collegiate School, North Calcutta (Photo: Ashish Sharan Lal)