The New Generation of Entrepreneurs Giving Kolkata’s Heritage Buildings a Fresh Start

06.05.2024 - 18:11 / cntraveler.com

On a leafy stretch near Kolkata's Southern Avenue, the three-level designer store Bombaim is a hive of activity. Young locals breeze through its centuries-old doors, trying on silks and gowns, admiring the space's bones. Large windows allow ample sunlight to stream through, illuminating the mulmul curtains that fall from the ceilings. Outside, lush tejpatta, or bay leaf, trees grow. The Art Deco grills and the city's signature khorkhoris, or louvered windows, reflect the store's previous life as a turn-of-the-century residence. Bombaim's owner, Richa Kanoi, made a point of preserving its historic splendor. “The launch was more about celebrating the space than the clothes,” she says.

The landmark Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata

Kanoi is one of dozens of Kolkatan creatives who have been reclaiming the old homes of residential South Kolkata over the past five years and reviving them as cutting-edge galleries, artisanal coffeehouses, chic boutiques, thoughtful restaurants, edgy cocktail bars, and more. The architectural style of these stately buildings stems from 18th-century Kolkata, the capital of British India for more than a century, when European colonialists saw a place ripe for their grand global building enterprise. Back then, Kolkata was Calcutta—the second city of the British empire and a fulcrum of its financial endeavors around the world. The cityscape included impressive marble edifices built by the British and palatial homes constructed by the rich merchants and zamindars (landowners). These houses were a mix of neoclassical, Art Deco, and traditional Bengali, but one thing they all had in common was the window styles, invariably painted a similar shade of green. For me, these buildings carry memories of the South Kolkata I grew up in, and for many Kolkatans they are a vital piece of identity and legacy. They symbolize the many layers of the city's past: colonial beginnings, Bengali renaissance, the freedom struggle, the Communist government, and today's deep-rooted urban multicultural identity.

A hand-pulled rickshaw in South Kolkata’s Hindustan Park neighborhood

Shashank Shahabadi, architect and cofounder of the Bhawanipur House

And yet, until the early 2000s, the city willfully destroyed much of this material heritage, tearing down these beautiful houses to clear a path for modern development. Governments and conservation boards ignored the voices of Kolkatans, who mounted advocacy campaigns to save these important structures. But in 2015, author Amit Chaudhuri started a citizen-led campaign called Calcutta Architectural Legacies to preserve the city's architectural inheritance. He was joined by urban conservationists, architects, and homeowners. A new wave of creatives also emerged;