COLONIAL

ARCHITECTURE IN ALL
METROPOLITIANS
DELHI
CALCUTTA/KOLKATA
BOMBAY/MUMBAI
MADRAS/CHENNAI
TOWN HALL, MUMBAI
TOWN HALL, MUMBAI
It was designed by LIEUTENANT-
COLONEL THOMAS COWPER in (1781-
1825)
This pleasantly neo-classical building now
houses the library of the Asiatic Society, as
well as a small museum.
The neo-classical design is due to Colonel
Thomas Cowper of the Bombay Engineers.
Town Hall is conceivably the most imperial
structure amongst the heritage buildings of
Mumbai.
TOWN HALL, MUMBAI
It is now classified as a heritage structure,
heavily influenced by Greek and Roman
architecture.
Housing the Asiatic Society of Bombay,
Town Hall is located in the Fort area of
South Mumbai.
The building is 200 feet long and 100 feet
deep.
The facade has three porticoes faced by
Ionic columns
TOWN HALL, MUMBAI

A flight of 30 steps lead up to the town hall

and a wrought iron divided Regency
staircase leads to the vestibule
It has a portico with eight Doric columns.
The pillared monument is even more
significant for its exquisite edifice that has
old wooden floor, spiral staircases, wrought
iron loggias and superb marble statues of
late benefactors of the Island City of India.
TOWN HALL, MUMBAI
The latter contains statues of some 19th
century governors of Bombay, some British
scholars and administrators and two Indian
philanthropists and an Indian scholar.
The plans called for a double row of
columns, built out of material brought from
England.
The building was completed in 1833, after
the death of Cowper.
ELPHINSTONE CIRCLE
GARDEN, MUMBAI
 ELPHINSTONE CIRCLE
GARDEN, MUMBAI
The Horniman Circle Gardens is a large park in
South Mumbai, India which encompasses an area
of 12,081 square yards (10,101 m²).
It is situated in the Fort district of Mumbai, and is
surrounded by office complexes housing the
country's premier banks.
Designed to be a large open space with grand
buildings in the middle of the walled city, the area
had been known as Bombay Greens in the 18th
century.
In 1842, the area had been just a dump of coconut
shells and debris.
 ELPHINSTONE CIRCLE
GARDEN, MUMBAI
The Police Commissioner, Charles Forjett, thought
of converting the Green into a circle surrounded by
buildings.
He was supported by governors Lord Elphinstone
and Sir Bartle Frère. The garden was laid out in
1869 and completed in 1872 with well laid out
walkways and trees planted all around.
It was laid down with the purpose of providing an
open space to the locals living in the walled city
area.
The whole complex was then renamed
Elphinstone Circle after the Governor, Lord John
Elphinstone.
 ELPHINSTONE CIRCLE
GARDEN, MUMBAI
An ornamental fountain was placed in the centre,
but it was replaced by a modern art deco iron
pipes design.
The park was a favourite social venue of the Parsi
community. In the pre-independence era, a band
used to perform there every evening.
The gardens overlook the Asiatic Society of
Bombay, a key landmark of the city.
Since the garden has been planted with trees of
every season; it blossoms with lush greenery
throughout the year.
 Victoria Railway
Terminus, Bombay
 Victoria Railway
Terminus, Bombay
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus formerly Victoria
Terminus, and better known by its abbreviation
CST or Bombay VT) is a historic railway station in
Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the
Central Railways.
It is one of the busiest railway stations in India,
and serves Central Railway trains terminating in
Mumbai as well as the Mumbai suburban railway.
The station was designed by Frederick William
Stevens, a consulting architect in 1887-1888
 Victoria Railway
Terminus, Bombay
It took ten years to complete and was named
"Victoria Terminus" in honour of the Queen and
Empress Victoria; it was opened on the date of her
Golden Jubilee in 1887.
This famous architectural landmark in Gothic style
was built as the headquarters of the great Indian
Peninsular Railway.
Since then the station came to be known as
Bombay VT.
Victoria Terminus boasts of spectacular stone
dome, turrets, pointed arches and unusual ground
plan, unlike the traditional Indian architecture.
 Victoria Railway
Terminus, Bombay
Its fine interiors, like wood carving, tiles,
ornamental iron, brass railings, etc, reflect
the efforts of students at the Bombay
School of Art.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus represents an
excellent fusion of two cultures.
During its construction, British architects
worked with the Indian craftsmen,
exchanging notes to give a new look and
style to Bombay.
 Government House,
Calcutta

Raj Bhavan is the Governor's house in Kolkata, West

Bengal.
The structure was built in pre-Independence times
(1803).
The structure was built in 1799–1803 to the designs of
Captain Charles Wyatt of the Bengal Engineer.
It serves as the residence of the Governor of the Indian
state of West Bengal, and is referred to by its Hindi
name ("Raj Bhavan").
The present Governor of West Bengal, HE
Gopalkrishna Gandhi resides in this building.
Government House,
Calcutta
Government House,
Calcutta

North East View Front View

 Government House,
Calcutta
The three-storied structure of Raj Bhavan was
inspired by the Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.
Interestingly, the Kedleston Hall is the ancestral
house of Marquess Curzon , who became the
Viceroy of India (from 1899 to 1904) and lived in
Government House exactly a century after Wellesly.
While the basic features of Kedleston such as the
Palladian Front, the Dome etc. have been faithfully
copied , the Government House is a much larger,
three storeyed structure.
Today, a "complete," brick built Kedleston, on a
much grander scale, is located in its acres of
gardens at the heart of the Kolkata business district.
Government House,
Calcutta
Raj Bhavan consists of a total area of 27 acres. The
building has 84,000 sq ft (7,800 m2) of floor space.
Government House resembles Kedleston Hall in the
broad external Features of shape, design and
orientation, in the extreme dimensions from East to
West, in the concentration of the main State rooms in
the middle pile, in the placing there of a great marble
hall supported by columns and in the superimposition of
a dome above the Southern façade, but the two houses
differradically both in material and arrangement
Kedleston is built mainly of a grey or yellowish
sandstone and only partly of brick while Government
House is built entirely of brick covered over with white
plaster which is color-washed every year.
Government House,
Calcutta
They differ also in completeness of construction, only
two of the projecting wings having been finished at
Kedleston, whereas Government House has all four
Government House also has a semi-circular
projecting portico and colonnade on the South front
which Kedleston lacks.

Another point of dissimilarity is that the curved

corridors at Government House are two story’s high
and so their roof line is level with that of the wings
and of the main building,whereas at Kedleston the
corridors are only one storey high so that the wings
stand up higher than the curving corridors which join
them to the central pile.
Government House,
Calcutta
Government House in addition has spacious
verandahs on the Southern face which are absent
and unnecessary at Kedleston.
Government House,
Calcutta
Interior
 Government House,
Calcutta
Interior
The residential portion is divided into 4 suites. The
Prince of Wales suite in the north-west wing of the
first floor is the suite where the President, Vice-
President and the Prime Minister of India reside
when visiting the state of West Bengal.
The Wellesley suite is located on the second floor
in the north-eastern wing.
The Dufferin suite is on the second floor of north-
west wing.
The fourth suite is the Anderson suite.
Occasional public meetings by the Governor are
held in the magnificent marble hall in the ground
floor.
 Government House,
Calcutta
Interior
The Council Chamber used to be the meeting
place of Executive Council of the Governor
General.
The Brown Dining Room was used as the
breakfast room, while the adjoining Blue Drawing
Room is the room where the Governor meets
guests.
The Throne Room is like a Durbar where princes
were welcomed and durbars held.
Besides, there are the Banquet Hall and the Ball
Room. There is a gun mounted on a dragon
towards the north gate.
 Government House,
Calcutta
Around the main gunInterior
there are ten guns that were
taken from the Chinese, in commemoration of the
peace initiated by Treaty of Nanking by the Naval
and Military forces of England and India under the
command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker and
of Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh G
Calcutta Town Hall
 Calcutta Town Hall
Calcutta Town Hall was the largest building in Calcutta
where public meetings of all descriptions took place,
and people of all shades of opinion in Calcutta had an
access to it.
Built in Doric architectural style, the origin of the
building can be traced back to a meeting held in Le
Gallais Tavern in 1791.
Plan for the proposed hall was sanctioned in 1807 and
Col J Garstin was put in charge of construction.
Being completed in 1813 it was handed over to a
management committee known as The Town Hall
Committee.
The Town Hall was spacious enough to accommodate
the social needs of the European community of the
settlement.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
A two storied structure above a brick-vaulted
foundation, its ground floor was about 23 feet high
and contained a marble hall and a few smaller
rooms to use for various purposes.
The upper floor with a teak-planked floor, was about
30 feet high and divided by double rows of pillars
into a central hall and two aisles.
At the northern end, there was a music gallery and
at the eastern side, a raised platform.
Some smaller rooms were used for cards and
supper rooms.
A series of steps from the road led to the colonnaded
front portico of the solid rectangular building.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
The carriage entrance was on the north under
another lofty covered portico.
The Town Hall was built with brick and wood.
The Ground Floor measures 23 feet high containing
a marble hall and smaller rooms.
The upper floor is 30 feet in height.
The building on the whole was a solid rectangular
block with two protruding porticos on the South and
North.
A series of grand steps from Esplanade Road lead to
the colonnaded front portico while a second entry
from the rear side used to serve the way for carriage
ways.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
The building demonstrates a load bearing
structure with brick masonry of 975 mm thick and
circular columns 775 mm thick.
The mortar was lime, sand and brick dust. The
average thickness of plaster was 20 mm. The
Central Hall has two rows of 22 columns each in
the East-West direction.
The Basement has been constructed with barrel
vaults spanning between the walls and the
columns with a cross vault running along the
central axis in the North- South direction.
The wooden beams of the first floor had sagged
and could no longer take the load of the first floor.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
As a result a series of cast iron pillars were placed
along the brick columns to support the first floor.
The Main Hall on the ground floor had become a
jungle of columns and beams at the floor level
making it unworthy of holding any large
gatherings.
The brick vaults in the foundation were in poor
conditions as moisture content in them was high
and huge cracks had developed in several places
due to the load of the large marble statues on the
ground floor and some cast iron supports.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
The fourteen skylights were made of wooden
frames with wired glass louvers; the main source
of leakage was from here as the lower frames had
rotted and given away.
The broken glass louvers allowed free ingress of
rain water thereby making the wooden floor below
and many of the skylights soft and spongy from
continuous water absorption.
The roof slab had several levels -the waterproofing
and large parts of the roof were leaking and the
seepage got absorbed in the wall and columns.
 Calcutta Town Hall
Structure
Also it was severely damaged exposing the rusted
reinforcement bars where portions of the roof slab
were exposed.
The original waterproofing used lime terracing that
became undulated over time.
Pockets of rainwater accumulated over the roof
started and the slow disintegration of the lime
terracing that does not have the binding strength
for retention over a large area.
The rain water pipes placed arbitrarily along the
parapet wall started damaging the cornices and
the terracotta motifs on the exterior wall.
Calcutta High Court
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in
India.
It was established on July 2, 1862 under the High
Courts Act, 1861.
Situated at Old Post Office Street near Eden Garden,
Calcutta High Court is the highest seat of judiciary in
West Bengal.
It is one of the oldest buildings in India constructed by
Walter Granville in 1872.
Built in the Gothic style of architecture, it has a tower
which is 54 m high.
On the eastern side is the original sandstone
courthouse.
The chief justice court, session court, bar library, and
attorney library are situated inside the high court.
 Calcutta High Court
The Court Rooms:
Portraits and busts of legal luminaries
adorn the courtrooms and the corridors and
the Bar Library is a treasury for the legal
tomes.
Browsing is permitted with the librarian's
permission.
The Judges Library contains interesting
legal documents.
Visitors are allowed inside the court
premises.
Post Office, Dalhousie
Square, Calcutta
Post Office, Dalhousie
Square, Calcutta
The General Post Office, Kolkata is the central
post office of the city of Kalkaska, India and the
chief post office of West Bengal.
The post-office handles most of the city's inbound
and outbound mail and parcels.
Situated in the B.B.D. Bagh area, the imposing
structure of the GPO is one of the landmarks in
the city
The site where GPO is located was actually the
site of the first Fort William.
It is also alleged to be the site of the infamous
Black Hole of Calcutta (1756).
Post Office, Dalhousie
Square, Calcutta
Post Office, Dalhousie
Square, Calcutta

The site where GPO is located was

actually the site of the first Fort William.
It is also alleged to be the site of the
infamous Black Hole of Calcutta (1756).
Designed by, Walter B. Grenville the
general post office was built in 1864.
The GPO is notable for its imposing
high domed roof (rising over 220 feet)
and tall Ionic-Corinthian pillars .
St. John's Church
Kolkata
 St. John's Church
Kolkata
Built by:
Job Charnock, the founder of Kolkata

Location:
Located south to the B.B.D. Bag, St.
John's Church is one of the oldest
churches of Kolkata.
St. John's Church
Kolkata
 St. John's Church
Kolkata
St. John's Church was built by the grave of Job
Charnock, the founder of Kolkata (Calcutta).
It was constructed between 1884-1887, popularly
known as the 'stone church'.
The floor of the church was made with stones
obtained from Ganda. Stones were also obtained
from Chunar.
The stone tower is 174 ft. high. Job Charnock was
buried here.
His sculpture was made by his son-in-law Sir
Charles Ayar around 1695. The sculpture is a
unique specimen of art.
 St. John's Church
Kolkata
There is a dome with a pitcher appended to it. There
are also the tombs of the daughters of Charnock.
There are the sculptures of British Admiral Watson
who subjugated Calcutta in 1757, Lord Brabourne,
Lady Canning and several distinguished persons.
The obelisk commemorating the black hole was
moved from near the GPO to a corner of this
graveyard. It is the earliest example of British
masonry in India. Near the west wall is a replica of
the Holwell Monument - originally erected at the site
of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
 St. John's Church
Kolkata
Inside the church there are the famous
paintings of The Last Supper by John
Zoffany, a marvellous stained glass window
and memorial tablets of prominent citizens
through the ages. The Sunday service is
held regularly at the church.
 THANK YOU

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Arch. Harveen Bhandari Nandita Singh
AR/07/315.