Writers' Buildings

Kolkata (Calcutta)


Foremost among BBD Bagh's grand colonial structures are the 1780 Writers’ Buildings, a twin-block office complex whose glorious south facade looks something like a French provincial city hall. It was originally built as a workplace for clerks (‘writers’) of the East India Company, and has been under restoration since 2013. Entry is restricted to visitors, but you're free to admire its grand exterior.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kolkata (Calcutta) attractions

1. St Andrews Church

0.1 MILES

Crowned by a fine Wren-style spire, St Andrews was built in 1815. It still holds distinctive Scottish-Presbyterian services and also has responsibility…

2. Chartered Bank Building

0.1 MILES

The 1905 former Chartered Bank Building is a five-storey red-and-white block with side turrets, domes and a vaguely Moorish touch to the design. Higher…

3. Eastern Railways Building

0.1 MILES

Designed with a slightly Spanish flourish, this huge colonial-era building has graceful window arches and overhangs picked out in red and the odd wooden…

4. Old GPO Building

0.14 MILES

One of the most iconic buildings on BBD Bagh is the old General Post Office, with its central rotunda soaring nearly 40m around a statue of a lance…

5. Darbhanga Statue

0.19 MILES

Majestically bearded and dressed in warrior costume yet sitting merrily cross-legged, this delightful statue gives Maharaja Lakshmeshwar Singh of…

6. Mission Church

0.2 MILES

Hidden almost invisibly behind BBD Bagh, this Protestant church is Kolkata's second-oldest place of Christian worship, dating to 1770.

7. Currency Building

0.21 MILES

Home to the Reserve Bank of India until 1937, the stabilised ruins of the once-magnificent Currency Building now houses a small exhibition about the…

8. Standard Life Building

0.22 MILES

The red-brick Standard Life Building has carved nymphs and wonderful wrought-iron balconies at the rear. Since 2014, work has begun at removing decades of…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "india/kolkata-calcutta/attractions/writers-buildings/a/poi-sig/1378006/356356",
      "destination": "Kolkata-(Calcutta)",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "India",
      "city": "Kolkata-(Calcutta)",
      "position": "superzone"
    }