Eden Garden & Harbour On The Hooghly Calcutta, 1905 Print
A 1905 print of Eden Garden and the harbour on the Hooghly River in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Calcutta in 1690 was a mere village when Job Charnock founded a settlement there. He, six years later built Fort William. Calcutta would eventually become the capital of British India till 1911.
King George V at the Delhi Durbar in 1911 announced Delhi as the new capital. The view is from the High Court overlooking the Harbour and Eden Gardens. Calcutta’s Grand Maidan or Esplanade as the British called it was first called “Auckland Circus Garden”. Subsequently renamed Eden Garden after Lord Auckland’s sisters Emily and Fanny Eden.
Lord Auckland was the Governor from 1836-42. It was opened as a huge public park and garden in 1840. The world-famous cricket stadium with the same name opened in 1864 which came up in a part of this garden. The port now named Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port was constructed on the River Hooghly in 1860.
The Portuguese arrived in the 1530s and opened a trading post at the River Hooghly. The Dutch arrived next followed by the French, the British were to arrive last and annexed the European settlements. They subsequently enlarged the already existing harbour in 1860. Today the Port Trust is one of the oldest and largest in India.
Did you know- the owner of Eden Gardens is the Indian Army and the club is on lease to the “Cricket Association of Bengal” or CAB.
From the collection- Raja Ravi Varma’s “Birth of Shakuntala” Oleograph 1894., Mumbai Railway Suburban Services – Old Print 1955., Vintage Wirephoto Korean War Prisoners UN India., Vintage Postcard Budhwar Peth Street Poona / Pune
