Kolkata Newsline, India
Dec 28 2008

A Street Named Memoir

EXPRESS FEATURES SERVICE
Posted: Dec 28, 2008 at 0407 hrs IST

Kolkata Pragya Paramita takes a walk along Park Street with a group of
enthusiastic young friends to know more about the city Walter Savage
Landor once famously wrote ‘ `Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes,
May weep but never see, A night of memories and sighs I consecrate to
thee’ ‘ of his beloved Rose Aylmer who sailed to Calcutta with her
aunt and died two years later. And the remains of Landor’s beloved,
who died sometime in the eighteenth century, are one of the many
obscure graves dotting the Park Street cemetery. It’s not one of the
best graves in the cemetery though but it certainly is one of the
things that will be pointed out to those who take the Calcutta Walks
along the entire Park Street in the morning.

Calcutta Walks, an endeavour started by a few enthusiastic young
friends, has been organising walking tours around different parts of
the city for the past one year and lately they added Park Street to
the list of historical roads on their itinerary. Some of the other
walks they conduct are in Dalhousie Square, Chowringhee, Sovabazar,
Bow Barracks to Burra Bazar and Kumartuli.

Park Street, says Iftekhar Ahsan, founder-member of the walk, is one
of the most interesting and fascinating streets in the city. And a
trip down this road could never get boring.

The Park Street chapter starts with a quick history of the old Asiatic
Society. Formed by Indophile William Jones, it was also one of the
first societies to be formed in the country. While one of the famed
jewel still stands, the other wonder at this end of the road, has but
disappeared into the oblivion. Hall and Anderson, that used to be one
of the biggest and oldest departmental stores on this side of the
continent, was patronised by the royal families of the country. `At 5
lakh square feet, even in history, it dwarfs over the modern
departmental stores,’ says Ahsan.

>From the past to the present, one of the best- kept secrets of the
road is Flury’s bakery situated behind the Apeejay House where breads
and muffins would still be baked in an oven that was brought to the
city in 1905 till about a decade ago when the place was renovated.
>From the back doors of the `gentle lady’, as Flury’s is affectionately
called, it’s then a stroll down with quick references to the Queen’s
Mansion, that was lost by a certain JC Golston in the races and the
Stephan Court founded by the Armenian Aratoon Stephan, who used to
drive a wheelbarrow in the streets of Calcutta and 25 years later
ended up owning the Grand Hotel.

`Interestingly, Park Street was known as the Burial Ground Road and
the place used to be marshes. There were settlements in North Kolkata
and Chowringhee but not here. This was basically an elevated road
going to the cemetery,’ says Ahsan.

While Park Street to most of its patrons may be the road of the Sky
Room and the wild girl as the Trincas is called, Ahsan makes it clear
it’s more than that.

`There is the Goethel Library in St Xavier’s College housing over a
thousand books printed before 1800, and of course the San Soucu
theatre patronised by Esther Leech who died when her dress caught fire
in the theatre before her performance. Today, it’s the St Xavier’s
auditorium,’ says Ahsan.

>From there it’s a quick walk to the grave of eighteenth century
British poet Landor’s beloved Rose Aylmer. But the cemetery, as Ahsan
points out, is a place that requires a full day’s dedication. So a
walk among the graves, a quick look at the graves of Derozio and
another Indophile Charles `Hindu’ Stuart, and then it’s back to
Flury’s for a breakfast.

`I have been to plenty of such walks in other cities like Singapore,
Hyderabad, Delhi and I realised that there could not be just one way
to see the city, and this is one of the unique ways one can experience
the city,’ says Ahsan.