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| The Imperial Department of Commerce & Industry, North view |
Taking up an entire city block, on the corner of Hare Street
and Council House Street, on the South Western corner of Dalhousie Square (now
BBD Bagh) is an Edwardian office block known today as the Commercial Library
Building. Montague Massey’s book, “Recollections
of Calcutta for Over Half a Century” identifies this as the offices of the Imperial
Department of Commerce and Industry. The book also says that this building was
built on the grounds where the old Foreign Office once stood.
Set up by Lord Curzon in 1905, the Imperial Department of
Commerce and Industry controlled almost every aspect of British commercial
interests in India, from the postal system, to factories, railway lines and
even mines and ports. While not much information is available about exactly
when this building was built, or who the architect was, the ornamental pediment
on the Council House Street side of the building says “GEORGIVS REX IMPERATOR
MCMXI”. MCMXI is the year 1911 and GEORGIVS REX IMPERATOR, or Georgius Rex
Imperator is the royal cipher for both George V and his son, George VI. George
V and Queen Mary had visited India in 1911 for the Delhi Durbar, and had come
to Calcutta, and the pediment probably refers to this event.  |
| The Imperial Department of Commerce & Industry, South view |
The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and
Statistics (DGCI&S) was set up in Calcutta in 1914. Two years later, the
Department of Commerce and Industry opened the Commercial Library, unifying the
departmental libraries of the Department of Commercial Intelligence, Department
of Patents and Designs, and Department of Statistics. This library currently
occupies part of the building. There is also the Council House Street Post
Office on its Eastern side. While the building seems to be in decent shape on
the outside, blogger Rangan Dutta says that inside, there is a dilapidated
wooden staircase, and by it, a sign which reads “Unsafe staircase. No more than
three people at a time”.
- by Deepanjan Ghosh
- by Deepanjan Ghosh
SOURCES
Recollections of Calcutta for Over Half a Century –
Montague Massey
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