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Millennium Park is a private park in Kolkata, situated along the Strand Road on eastern shore of Hooghly River for a stretch of 2.5 km near Fairlie Ghat and opposite to Railway Club. The park consists of landscaped gardens and children’s amusement rides. It was opened along the riverside to provide a green area for Kolkata’s polluted waterway. It is a millennium gift from Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA/CMDA) inaugurated on 26 December 1999. The park is part of the first phases of the Kolkata Riverside Beautification Project. The park is open from 11am-8pm.
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St. John’s Church, originally a cathedral, was among the first public buildings erected by the East India Company after Kolkata became the effective capital of British India. Located at the North – Western corner of Raj Bhavan construction of the St. John’s Church started in 1784, with Rs 30,000 raised through a public lottery, and was completed in 1787. St. John’s Church is the third oldest church in Calcutta (Kolkata) only next to the Armenian and the Old Mission Church. St. John’s Church served as the Anglican Cathedral of Calcutta (Kolkata) till 1847 when it was transferred to St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. John’s Church was modeled according to the St Martin-in-the-Fields of London.History & ArchitectureThe land for the St. John’s Church was donated by the Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur the founder of the Shovabazar RajFamily.The foundation stone was laid by Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India on 6 April 1784. Two marble plaques at the entrance of the St. John’s Church mark the two historic events.Built by architect James Agg the St John’s church is built with a combination of brick and stone and was commonly known as the “Pathure Girja” (Stone Church). Stone was a rare material in the late 18th century Kolkata. The stones came from the medieval ruins of Gour, and were shipped down the Hooghly River. The minutes book in the church office tell in detail the story of how the ruins of Gaur were robbed to build St John’s church.
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Rabindra Sarobar is an artificial lake in south Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.The name also refers to the area surrounding the lake. It is flanked by Southern Avenue to the North, Rashbehari Avenue to the West, Dhakuria to the East and the Kolkata Suburban Railway tracks to the south.HistoryIn the early 1920s, the Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT), a body responsible for developmental work in the Kolkata metropolitan area, acquired about 192acre of marshy jungles. Their intention was to develop the area for residential use – improving the roads, raising and levelling some of the adjacent land and building lakes and parks. Excavation work was undertaken with the plan of creating a huge lake. Originally known as Dhakuria Lake, in May 1958, CIT renamed the lake as Rabindra Sarovar, as a tribute to the great Bengali writer and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore.The area around this excavated lake was later developed to build recreational complexes, which included children’s parks, gardens and auditoria.
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The Alipore Zoological Gardens is India’s oldest formally stated zoological park and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has been open as a zoo since 1876, and covers 18.81ha. It is probably best known as the home of the now expired Aldabra giant tortoise Adwaita, which was reputed to have been over 250 years old when it died in 2006. It is also home to one of the few captive breeding projects involving the Manipur brow-antlered deer. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Kolkata, it draws huge crowds during the winter season, especially during December and January. The highest attendance till date was on December 25, 2016 with 81,000 visitors.HistoryThe zoo had its roots in a private menagerie established by Governor General of India, Richard Wellesley, established around 1800 in his summer home at Barrackpore near Kolkata, as part of the Indian Natural History Project. The first superintendent of the menagerie was the famous Scottish physician zoologist Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. Buchanan-Hamilton returned to England with Wellesley in 1805 following the Governor-General’s recall by the Court of Directors in London. The collection from this era are documented by watercolours by Charles D’Oyly, and a visit by the famous French botanist Victor Jacquemont. Sir Stamford Raffles visited the menagerie in 1810, encountering his first tapir there, and doubtless used some aspects of the menagerie as an inspiration for the London Zoo.
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The Maidan also referred as Brigade Parade Ground is the largest urban park in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a vast stretch of field and home to numerous play grounds, including the famous cricketing venue Eden Gardens, several football stadia, and Kolkata Race Course. The Maidan is dotted with statues and pieces of architecture, most notable being the Victoria Memorial. Due to the freshness and greenery it provides to the metropolis, it has been referred to as the “lungs of Kolkata”. The Maidan is a property of the Indian Army and hosts the Eastern zone high command of the Indian Army in Fort William. The Maidan stretches from as far north as the Raj Bhavan building in Esplanade and as far south as the National Library on Belvedere Rd. in Alipore. The wide field stretches from the Hoogly River on the west to the Victoria Memorial on the east. It is a historical and cultural center of Kolkata as well as a center of leisure and entertainment for Calcuttans.HistoryIn 1758, one year after their decisive win in Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company commenced construction of the new Fort William in the center of the village Gobindapur. The inhabitants of the village were compensated and provided with land in Taltala, Kumartuli and Shovabazar. The fort was completed in 1773. “The tiger-haunted jungle which cut off the village of Chowringhee from the river was cleared, and gave way to the wide grassy stretch of the Maidan of which Calcutta is so proud. The formation of this airy expanse and the filling up of the creek which had cut off the settlement in the south, led the European inhabitants to gradually forsake the narrow limits of the old palisades. The movement towards Chowringhee had already been noticeable as early as 1746.”
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The Shaheed Minar, formerly known as the Ochterlony Monument, is a monument in Kolkata that was erected in 1828 in memory of Major-general Sir David Ochterlony, commander of the British East India Company, to commemorate both his successful defense of Delhi against the Marathas in 1804 and the victory of the East India Company’s armed forces over the Gurkhas in the Anglo-Nepalese War. The monument was constructed in his memory. It was designed by J.P. Parker and paid for from public funds.In August 1969, it was rededicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Indian freedom movement and hence renamed the “Shahid Minar,” which means “martyrs’ monument” in both Bengali and Hindi, by the then United Front Government in memory of the martyrs of the Indian independence movement. The present government has decided to illuminate the tower during evenings and allow visitors to the top. The last persons who went up there were former governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and his family.
