- Places of interest in Kolkata
Kolkata has beennickname d the City of Palaces. This comes from the numerous palatial mansions built all over the city.During the British colonial era from 1700–1912, when Kolkata was the capital of
British India , Kolkata witnessed a spate of frenzied construction activity of buildings largely influenced by the conscious intermingling of Gothic, Baroque, Roman, Oriental and Islamic schools of design. Unlike many north Indian cities, whose construction stresses minimalism, the layout of much of the architectural variety in Kolkata owes its origins toEurope an styles and tastes imported by the British and, to a much lesser extent, the Portuguese and French.The buildings were designed and inspired by the tastes of the English gentleman around and the aspiring Bengali Babu (literally, a "nouveau riche" Bengali who aspired to cultivation of English etiquette, manners and custom, as such practices were favourable to monetary gains from the British).
Today, many of these structures are in various stages of decay. Some of the major buildings of this period are well maintained and several buildings have been declared as heritage structures. Conservation efforts are patchy and are often affected by problems of litigation, tenant troubles, ownership disputes, old tenancy laws and a lack of funds.
Museums and libraries
Born as
Lord Curzon 's brainchild as a memorial to the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, Queen Victoria after her death in 1902, theVictoria Memorial was modelled on theTaj Mahal and was commissioned in 1906. Opened to the public in 1921, it was designed by the architectsWilliam Emerson and his protegeVincent Esch at the extraordinary cost of Rupees 10.5 million ($262,500), all of which was collected as voluntary donations, mostly from the British andIndia n nobility. The memorial holds numerous paintings of theBritish royal family , miniature paintings of theMughal School ,oil paintings of theCompany school (notably the uncle - nephew pair ofThomas Daniell andWilliam Daniell ), historical artefacts like the throne of theNawab of Bengal , many lithographs and documents of historical interest, and various post-Raj artefacts significant in the history of Kolkata (added to the collection after independence). The memorial is set in extensive and beautiful lawns, and is lit up at night. A laser audio-visual show is held on the lawns every evening. Thebanshee on the top of the museum is said to be haunted, and has been prominently featured in many Kolkata stories and novels. It is regarded with pride and joy in Kolkata and colloquially referred to as the "Victoria".The
Indian Museum is the largest museum inAsia and the oldest in theAsia - Pacific region (est. 1814 at the location of theAsiatic Society ) . The Museum shifted to its present sprawling residence in 1875. Situated onChowringhee Avenue , it houses perhaps the greatest collection ofIndian natural history and anIndian Art collection to rival theSmithsonian and theBritish Museum . Of specific note are themeteorite hall anddinosaur hall in theNatural History and Geology section, thenumismatics section and the collections ofGandhara Art , Burmese woodwork, Mughal miniatures andTibet an banner sections in theIndian Art section. TheAnthropological Survey of India headquarters and theGovernment College of Art and Craft are housed in the same building. TheGeological Survey of India headquarters moved from the museum toBidhan Nagar recently. TheIndian Museum has a library of excellent historical value, with a special focus on theRaj and Kolkata.The Marble Palace is a privately owned collection of eclectic sculptures, paintings and a small menagerie and aviary off
Chittaranjan Avenue inNorth Kolkata . Built byRaja Rajendra Mullick in 1835, it houses, among other treasures two little-publicizedReubens and aJoshua Reynolds , not to mention over 50 varieties ofmarble which grace the interiors of this mansion.Birla Industrial and Technological Museum onGurusaday Dutta Road , was inaugurated in 1959 as the first popular science museum inAsia . Modelled on theDeutsches Museum , it has interactive popular science exhibits and a significant collection of historical industrial holdings in India. Its collection of oldgramophone s,sound recorders ,telephones ,steam engine s,road roller s and other industrial machinery of the period 1880–1950 is very significant. The museum sports a vintage model of the Rolls Royce Phantom make. It also actively organizes summer camps, awareness programs and astronomy observations for school children.Science City is a complex near theEastern Metropolitan Bypass featuring a lot of interactive science and live bioscience exhibits, as well as having Kolkata's firstOMNIMAX theatre.The
Jorasanko Thakur Bari is the ancestral home of theTagore family and was converted into a museum in 1961. The huge sprawling brick mansions were the cultural hub of Kolkata for close to a century and was a major force in the women's liberation movement. It hosted the firstBrahmo wedding and was an important center in the Independence movement. The museum has three large galleries - one of the life and works ofRabindranath , a second gallery about his close relatives such as fatherDebendranath Tagore ,Abanindranath Tagore ,Gaganendranath Tagore and others, and a third gallery on theBengal Renaissance in general.Gurusaday Museum , onDiamond Harbour Road , is the outcome of a lifetime of collection of traditionalBengal folk arts in undividedBengal by SirGurusaday Dutt . On his death in 1941, the collection was handed over to theBratachari Society founded by SirGurusaday Dutt to preserve and protectBengal folk art s. It was opened as a museum to the public with the help of theGovernment of India in 1963. It contains, among other fine handicrafts,terracotta panels,kantha or folkquilt work, andpata s ( or hand painted scrolls of the late 1900s), notably of theKalighat school . TheAsutosh Museum of Indian Art , on College Street, is the other museum specializing inBengal folk arts , but with significant archaeological holdings from sites inWest Bengal andBihar likeChandraketugarh andTamluk . The first university owned museum inIndia , it is run by theUniversity of Calcutta and is named after its famous vice chancellor SirAsutosh Mukherjee .Jawahar Shishu Bhavan is named afterJawaharlal Nehru , whose love for children was well known. The museum has a collection of dolls and toys from across the globe, and has a doll - based retelling of theIndia nepics Ramayana andMahabharata . Established in 1972 close to theVictoria Memorial , and commonly referred to as "Nehru Children's Museum", this museum is aging awkwardly fast.Sabarna Sangrahashala located at Baro Bari, Barisha, Kolkata 700008, is the only family museum of Kolkata which is open to public. It was established in 2005 by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury Paribar Parishad and already has become a great tourist destination specially for those who want to know more about the history ofKolkata . It is also a research institute in the making. The Museum possesses some of the rarest "Kabulatipatras, documents" and "articles" of historical importance. The museum is dedicated to students for creating an awareness in history and culture. [http://www.sabarna.faithweb.com Sabarna Prithivi]Kolkata also has some other small museums like the Maritime Museum, and the Police Museum.
National Library of India located in Alipore is India's leading library and a public library. It was inaugurated in 1836 by theGovernor General Lord Meltcalfe by transferring 4675 books from theCollege of Fort William . Public donations were the main source of books for the library, and by donations of Rupees 300 from proprietors.Dwarakanath Tagore was the first proprietor of the library. The library was initially only partially public, as poor students could use the library for a limited period of time. TheImperial Library was founded in 1891 by merging several libraries like those of theEast India College andEast India Board .Governor General Lord Curzon initiated the merger of these two libraries into a singleImperial Library in 1903 at theMetcalfe Hall . The goals of the library were to collect "every" book written about India at any time. The Assistant Librarian of the British MuseumJohn Macfarlane was the first librarian and was succeeded by the firstIndia n librarianHarinath De . The library was moved to its present quarters inBelvedere Estate ,Alipore and renamed theNational Library . It is a fully public library which co-ordinates the activities of all other Indian public libraries. True to its goal, any book published in India today has to send one copy to theNational Library, Kolkata in the spirit of theLibrary of Congress ,United States .The other popular Kolkata libraries include the
Ramakrishna Mission Library , maintained by theRamakrishna Mission , Kolkata which has a special children's section, as well as the large consulate-based libraries ofBritish Council , Kolkata and of theUnited States Information Service , Kolkata. TheCalcutta Club library has a historically significant collection, including the fully furnished and book-stocked reading room ofNirad C. Chaudhuri . The other historically significant libraries are those ofAsiatic Society ,Indian Museum , Presidency College,Scottish Church College , andSt. Xavier's College, Calcutta .British administrative offices
*High Court
*Bankshall Court
*Raj Bhavan or Government House, Kolkata, built in the early 19th century, is modelled onKedleston Hall . The House was once the seat of theViceroy s of India; later, when the Government moved to New Delhi, it became the residence of the Governor ofBengal , a function that it fulfills to this day. While the basic features of Kedleston have been faithfully copied (the Palladian Front, the Dome etc.), Government House is a much larger, three storeyed structure. Also, the Government of India evidently did not have the funding constraints that forced the Curzons to leave their house incomplete: Government House has all four wings originally conceived for Kedleston. So 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.
*Town Hall
*Writers' Building
*General Post Office
*Esplanade Mansion
*South Eastern Railway Headquarters, Garden Reach
*Howrah StationHistoric hotels
The
Great Eastern Hotel was bornAuckland Hotel in 1841, at the crossroads of theOld Courthouse Street andBritish India Street , founded by confectioner David Wilson and named after the currentGovernor General Lord Auckland . It grew from strength to strength over the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Locally known as "Wilson's Hotel", it was also known as "Auckland Hotel and the Hall of Nations" in the 19th century, and was referred to as the "Japani Hotel" (Japanese Hotel) colloquially in the 20th century, due to the large number of Japanese tourists there. The hotel was extremely elite, referred to as theJewel of the East and "the best hotel East of theSuez " byMark Twain on his voyage along the Equator, and described byRudyard Kipling in "The City of Dreadful Night ". It had notable board members like the authorParry Chand Mitter and stockholders likeW. C. Bonnerjee - president of theIndian National Congress . The hotel was famous for its new year parties thrown byMaharajah s (like theMaharajah of Cooch Behar ) uptil the 1950s. It has been host to such notables as Queen Elizabeth II on herIndia visit,Nikita Khruschev 's delegation in the 1950s, and visiting internationalcricket teams. The hotel kitchens, manned by the legendaryBaruah s ofChittagong (now inBangladesh ), was the talk of Kolkata. It steadily progressed downhill since the 1970s, and was taken over by theGovernment of West Bengal in 1975 on grounds of insolvency.Labour union problems caused the hotel to worsen until a sensationalist news campaign by The Telegraph exposed the sorry state of the hotel in the 1990s. The hotel was privatised in November 2005 with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers and has been re-christened The Grand Great Eastern Kolkata. It is expected to reopen after extensive renovation in 2007.The Grand Hotel had humble beginnings as
Mrs. Monte 's Boarding House at 13,Chowringhee Street . Acquired by the Armenian real-estate baronArrathoon Stephen , it turned into a 3-story 500-room hotel. Acquired byMohan Singh Oberoi in 1938, it became theOberoi Grand . The hotel got a major lift duringWorld War II when about 4000 soldiers were billeted there, and would party regularly. Events like the U.S. Marines' Ball at the hotel remind visitors of such times.City parks
Maidan means "field" in
Hindi and Bengali. The Kolkata Maidan was once a vast uninterrupted field, right down to the edge of theHoogli , but is being encroached upon by the city and is fragmented by roads. The Maidan has nurtured sports likePolo , and has been the home ofequestrianism ,horse racing , football,cricket and rugby in Kolkata. It houses numerous clubs including the "big three" of Indian football -Mohun Bagan Athletic Club,East Bengal Football Club andMohammedan Sporting Club along with their respective home stadiums. The arterialChowringhee Avenue ,Eden Gardens and the waterfront Millennium Park border the Maidan. The Maidan abounds with monuments and statues, the most famous of them beingShaheed Minar and the statue of ace footballerGostho Pal .Rabindra Sarobar or "The Lake" is an artificial lake and urban park in the spirit ofCentral Park ,New York City . The park has a lake and an island with a footbridge, an open air amphitheatre (Nazrul Mancha ), a sports stadium (Rabindra Sarobar Stadium ), a children's park and the rowing clubs ofCalcutta Rowing Club ,Bengal Rowing Club andLake Club .The Salt Lake Central Park is a large urban park in the centre of the
Bidhan Nagar township, with a lake in the middle and information technology and government offices along its fringes.The
Indian Botanical Garden , spread over convert|270|acre|km2, was founded in 1786 and is the oldest "botanics" inIndia . Housing 50,000 species, theBotanical Survey of India and one of the world's most historically relevantherbarium s, it is famous for its 250 year old 98 feet tall banyan tree - which has the largest girth of any banyan tree ever recorded (1300 ft) .Alipore Zoological Gardens was founded in 1875, inaugurated byEdward VII , thenPrince of Wales . Initially started from the personal menagerie of the thenGovernor General of BengalArthur Wellesley andCarl Louis Schwendler - a Germanelectrician , it grew based on gifts from British and Indian nobility - likeRaja Suryakanta Acharya ofMymensingh in whose honour the open air tiger enclosure is named the "Mymensingh Enclosure". The zoo was ill-reputed because of cross breeding experiments betweenlion s andtiger s to produce strains liketigon s,liger s, andlitigon s.Adwaita was a maleAldabra Giant Tortoise in the zoo which died in March, 2006. He was reported to have been more than 250 years old - a candidate for the longest lived animal. The other success story of the zoo was a live birth of the rareSumatran Rhinoceros in 1889. The zoo is presently downsizing to meet animal comfort requirements laid down by theCentral Zoo Authority of India . The zoo is also on theflyway for severalmigratory birds like theSarus Crane .Millennium Park is the newest city park on the banks of the River
Hoogli .Statues and memorials
The Shaheed Minar or "Tower of the Martyrs", (originally Ochterlony Monument) was constructed on the northern fringe of the Maidan in honour of Sir
David Ochterlony who commanded theBritish East India Company forces in theGurkha War 1814-1816. It was renamedShaheed Minar in honour of the fallenfreedom fighters afterIndia n independence.Other memorials in Kolkata include the
Panioty fountain , and theWilliam Jones obelisk at theSouth Park Street cemetery .Kolkata is full of statues celebrating British heritage and the
India n Renaissance and freedom movement. The Maidan is a particularly good place for statue-hunting. A few of the more notable landmarks:The statue of
Netaji by Marathi sculptorNagesh Yoglekar - at theShyambazar five point crossing.The statue of Sir James Outram by Irish sculptor
John Foli (1874) - in front of theVictoria Memorial , originally at the Park Street andChowringhee Avenue crossing.The statue of Iswarchandra Vidyasagar by Bengali sculptor
Pramod Gopal Chattopadhyay (1899) - on the premises ofSanskrit College .The statue of
Rabindranath Tagore by Russian sculptorAizekovich Azgur (1963) - at theJorasanko Tagore residence.The statue of David Hare by unknown sculptor (1847) - one of Kolkata's few marble statues, on the precincts of Presidency College.
A comprehensive list of Kolkata statues can be found at http://www.catchcal.com/kaleidoscope/statue.asp .
Sports venues
*
Eden Gardens presently one of only two 100,000 seater amphitheatres for the game of cricket (the other beingMelbourne Cricket Ground ) was initially an extension of the Maidan under the supervision ofGovernor General Lord Auckland , and looked after by theEden sisters of the Auckland family. The gardens house a transported Burmesepagoda of exquisite design. The pavilion was built in 1871 and the 1st first class match played in the season of 1911-12. It has since hosted many international Test matches, one day matches and tournaments, including the final of theCricket World Cup in 1987. Its exalted status in cricketing history comes from the lush outfield, stellar performances (likeV.V.S. Laxman 's 281), and not least the intense crowd support. The stadium has a history of crowd violence - involving riots in the stands in 1967 (when the stadium burnt), 1996 and 1999.* Yuva Bharati Krirangan, also called the
Salt Lake Stadium , is a 122,000 - strong amphitheatre used for soccer matches and concerts. It is purposely not a home stadium for any soccer team. It hosted the bulk of the 3rd South Asian Federation Games in Kolkata in 1987.*The
Netaji Indoor Stadium , adjacent to theEden Gardens , is a 120,000 seater air-conditioned indoor stadium, having hosted internationally significant events like thestate funeral ofMother Teresa in 1997. Constructed in 1975 to host theWorld Table Tennis Championships , it also has theKshudiram Anusilani Kendra - a smaller auditorium without gallery facilities for training purposes.*The
Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (originally theCalcutta Cricket Club ) is the second oldest cricket club in the world, after theMarylebone Cricket Club . Founded in 1792 as theCalcutta Cricket Club , it merged later with theCalcutta Football Club (founded 1872) to become theCalcutta Cricket and Football Club , and is located onGurusaday Dutta Road . It has arguably the most picturesque cricket ground in Kolkata. Recent evidence in the form of an article inHickey's Bengal Gazette , suggests the club existed in 1780 - which would make it the oldest cricket club in the world.*The
Royal Calcutta Turf Club is the oldest turf club inIndia , and one of the most beautiful and largest in the world. Encompassing a significant area of the Maidan, it was founded in 1847, and is distinguished for its "Monsoon Track " - one of the fastest draining tracks in the world. It was conferred the epithet "Royal" by George V in 1912.*Kolkata is one of the few cities in the world to boast of three beautiful 18 hole
golf course s within city limits - at theRoyal Calcutta Golf Club , Tollygunj Club and Fort William. TheRoyal Calcutta Golf Club , founded in 1829, is the oldest golf club outside theBritish Isles . It was variously located inDum Dum andMaidan , but finally settled down inTollygunj and was conferred the epithet "Royal' by George V at theDelhi Durbar in 1911.*Kolkata is home to the world's oldest active
polo club, theCalcutta Polo Club . Situated on the Maidan, the club was founded in 1862 and is the second oldest polo club in the world. Kolkata has yet another polo club in theFort William Polo Club . The CPC polo grounds are located in the maidan and maintained jointly with the RCTC.*Kolkata is also home to one of the oldest squash and rackets clubs in the world - the
Calcutta Racket Club , founded in 1793.*South Club, established in 1920, has beautiful tennis courts and has been the venue for
Davis Cup matches.*
Rabindra Sarobar is the home and pool for the rowing clubs ofLake Club , Bengal Rowing Club andCalcutta Rowing Club .Markets and malls
New Market is Kolkata's historic shopping district. Opened in 1874, it was named
Hogg Market after the commissioner SirStuart Hogg . The beautiful fountain and benches at the market no longer exist, but the popularity of the market has not waned, and the beautiful gothic clock tower recalls the British heritage of the market. It was renamed New Market after Independence.New Market led the way for
Christmas andNew Year festivities with confectionery shops likeNahoum's putting up a special spread. The market is organized on the basis of merchandize. It burnt down partially in 1985 but has been restored and expanded with a new building since.Kolkata has seen a spurt of shopping malls with the rise of the buying power of the Kolkata populace. Shopping arcades like Forum Mall and
Emami Shoppers' City inCentral Calcutta have brought international brands fromSwarovski to Godiva to the city, breaking the city's dependence on the older market complexes like A.C. Market and Vardaan Market, which were mainly Chinese import dependent.Swabhumi has been modelled as anethnic shopping arcade near theEastern Metropolitan Bypass .City centre has sprung up in the residential area of Salt Lake City, which is fast becoming a new destination for Calcuttans. Elgin Road has emerged as the new age shopping district with huge malls like Forum and other standalone global brands like Tommy Hilfiger, etc.Places of worship
*
Dakshineswar Kali Temple
*Kalighat
*Birla temple
*Belur Math
*Bhoothnath
*Tipu Sultan Mosque
*Nakhoda Mosque
*St. Paul’s Cathedral
*St. John's Church
*Greek Orthodox Church
*Armenian Church
*Synagogues
*Armenian Church
*Parsi Fire Temples
*Japanese Buddhist Temple
*Pareshnath Jain Temple Bridges of Kolkata
*Howrah Bridge or
Rabindra Setu
*The Second Hooghly Bridge orVidyasagar Setu
*Bally Bridge orVivekananda Setu British-era clubs
In Calcutta, the word "club" stills means a watering hole and not a discotheque. Calcutta has a number of clubs that hark back to the Raj days but have modernised over time without sacrificing its traditions. Most clubs have bakeries, dining facilities and accommodation at reasonable prices. They also have reciprocal arrangements with clubs in different countries. The most noted clubs are:
* [http://www.thebengalclub.com The Bengal Club]
*Calcutta Club
*Tollygunge Club
*The Saturday Club
*The Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC)
* [http://www.dikolkata.com The Dalhousie Institute (DI)]
*The Outram Club
*The Royal Calcutta Turf Club
*The Ordnance Club
*Hindusthan Club
*The Calcutta Swimming Club (CSC)
*TheCalcutta Cricket and Football Club (CC&FC)Calcutta Rowing Club founded in 1858.British-era buildings
*
Calcutta Medical College
*Esplanade Mansion
*Howrah Station
*LIC Building
*RajBhawan
*Sealdah Station
*St. Paul’s Cathedral
*S. E. Railway HQ
*State Bank
*Writers' Building
*Calcutta High Court.
*Bankshal Court.Educational institutes of academic and historical interest
*
Asiatic Society [http://www.asiaticsocietycal.com/]
*Bishop's College
*South Point
* [http://www.nujs.edu/ The W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences]
* [http://www.becs.ac.in/ Bengal Engineering College]
*University of Calcutta
*Presidency College
*Calcutta Medical College
*NRS Medical College
*St. Xavier's Collegiate School
*Loreto College
*Scottish Church College
*Vidyasagar College for Women
*Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
* [http://www.nih.nic.in/ National Institute of Homoeopathy]
*Indian Association for the Cultivation of Sciences
*Jadavpur University
*David Hare Training College
*Hindu School
*Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
*Hare School
*Calcutta Girls High School
*Calcutta Boys' School
*La Martiniere College for Boys
*La Martiniere College for Girls
*Sanskrit Collegiate School
* [http://fapsonline.com The Frank Anthony Public School]Amusement parks
"'
Park Circus Palm village Walks
*The College Street walk involves a walk down Kolkata's most academic street - with historical institutions like Presidency College,
Calcutta Medical College ,Bethune College ,Scottish Church College , theUniversity of Calcutta andIndia Coffee House . The sidewalks are overrun with pedestrians, and the streets with vehicles, but the ambiance of the street comes from literally hundreds of used book stores on either side of the street selling a potpourri of literature and textbooks.Operation Sunshine - Kolkata's drive to remove street hawkers, had a special clause ruling out hawkers on College Street.College Square at the heart of [College Street, has a square pool. Bookstores of repute includeDasgupta's and those of publishing housesChuckerverty, Chatterjee and Sons andRupa and Co. .Putiram's Cabin is a much-loved snack and sweet shop on College Street.
*TheFree School Street walk between Park Street andNew Market (Kolkata) New Market involves a walk past Kolkata's best budget hotels in theFree School Street -Sudder Street area. The used book and record shops sport an eclectic collection due to trade with generations of budget travellers the world over. The street also has the houseWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was born in, theCalcutta Fire Services headquarters, and one of the best places to buy cold cuts is atKalman's , a shop of Hungarian origin.Free School Street dining can be eclectic, withShamiana - offering cheap Mughlai cuisine,Prince andPrincess cheap Bengali cuisine, andMocambo upscale continental dining, to name a few .Free School Street ( now calledMirza Ghalib Street ) is Kolkata's answer toNew York City 's Hell's Kitchen, and is not particularly safe after dark.
*The Southern Avenue walk takes one past Kolkata's artificial lake and urban park - theRabindra Sarobar , and numerous playgrounds. Early morning walks make for excellent people and dog watching as well as nature watching and cricket watching. At end ofSouthern Avenue liesGol Park with some of the best sweet shops in Kolkata likeGanguram's and the used book store alley, and the shopping district ofGariahat .
*TheChowringhee Avenue walk betweenElgin Road andB.B.D. Bagh takes one past the St. Paul's Cathedral,Bishop House ,Birla Planetarium , Kolkata's prominent eyesore oof a highriseChatterjee International ,Tata Centre , theIndian Museum ,Asiatic Society , the Maidan, the Esplanade, Grand Hotel, and the historic Metro theatre, once the first point of release in the Eastern Hemisphere forMetro Goldwyn Mayer films. Fine dining at the Grand Hotel, the home of the essentially Kolkata snack - the "roll" -Nizam's , the authentic sherbet shopParagon and New Market are all a stone's throw away.
*TheOffice Para (Office district) walk around features the British seat of administration in India - within a few blocks lie theWriters' Building , Raj Bhavan,Calcutta High Court , the General Post Office andB. B. D. Bagh . The express streetside lunch providers make for a delicious, cheap, unbelievably quick and dubiously hygienic meal which has to be eaten to be believed.
*A ramble through the Maidan takes one past clubs of every description from football clubs to the Press Club, stadiums of the big three football clubs andEden Gardens , theVictoria Memorial ,Chowringhee Avenue , Fort William, theShaheed Minar , theRoyal Calcutta Turf Club and a whole host of statues. Cricket, soccer, horse races and even the occasional rugby game can be watched at leisure on the Maidan. Horseback tours through the Maidan, and horse drawn tours around it, are quite popular.
*The Strand Road walk is the riverside walk past the "ghats" or piers, the palatialState Bank of India headquarters, theKolkata Maritime Museum and the promenade in Millennium Park. TheHoogli makes for excellent riverboat and people watching, and theHaora skyline is ramshackle but interesting. A look up and down the river shows the famousHowrah Bridge andVidyasagar Setu . Kolkata's bestice cream joints, not to mention the occasional "floatel" are on Strand Road.
*The Park Street walk goes down Kolkata's foremost dining district with noted restaurants and eateries like Shiraz,Flury's ,Trinca's andHot Kati Roll joints. Kolkata's nightlife revolves around Park Street's nightclubs, pubs and coffee houses. Park Street has famous buildings like theAsiatic Society ,St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and theChurch of the Seventh Day Adventists , and theSouth Park Street Cemetery has cenotaphs and tombs of the who's who of theBritish Raj and the KolkataArmenians . One end of Park Street links up toChowringhee Avenue and the Maidan while the other end goes toPark Circus .
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