Writers' Building

The Writers' Building is the grand secretariat that long served as the seat of government in Kolkata, fronting the northern side of the Lal Dighi tank in the old administrative core known as B.B.D. Bagh. Its name recalls its original purpose: it was built in 1777 to house the junior clerks, or "writers", of the East India Company.

The imposing facade seen today dates largely from a later nineteenth-century remodelling in the Greco-Roman and neo-Renaissance style, a long red-brick frontage with Corinthian columns and a central pediment crowned by a statue of Minerva. Over time the modest clerks' lodgings grew into the sprawling headquarters of the government of Bengal, and later of West Bengal.

Its history is layered with drama. In 1930 the building was the scene of a celebrated act of anti-colonial defiance when three young revolutionaries stormed the corridors and shot a British official, an episode still commemorated locally. For generations afterward the "Writers'" was shorthand for the state administration itself.

For visitors, the building is chiefly an architectural and historical landmark rather than a museum, and as a working government complex its interior is not generally open to tourists. It is best appreciated from the surrounding square, where it anchors an ensemble of colonial-era civic buildings including the General Post Office and old commercial houses. The area is easily reached from the nearby metro and is a fine place to begin a heritage walk through the former imperial capital. Early morning light on the red facade is especially photogenic, and the adjacent tank and lanes give a strong sense of how Calcutta grew as the administrative heart of British India.