Esplanade & Chowringhee

Chowringhee Road (officially Jawaharlal Nehru Road) runs along the Maidan’s eastern edge from Esplanade to Park Street. Described in 1803 as “an entire village of palaces,” it still carries traces of that grandeur in older colonnaded buildings, though high-rises and a flyover have transformed the skyline. The Esplanade, once colonial Calcutta’s evening promenade, is now the city’s busiest transport hub: tram, metro and bus interchange combined.
The walk south along the Maidan-facing pavement remains one of India’s great urban strolls, the white form of the Victoria Memorial visible in the distance. Landmarks along the way include Esplanade Mansions (1910, Art Nouveau), the Tipu Sultan Shahi Mosque (1842, built by Tipu Sultan’s son in memory of his exiled father, its four minarets and 16 green domes rising above the market stalls of Dharmatala) and further south, New Market (opened 1874 as Stuart Hogg Market), Kolkata’s first municipal market, its Gothic clock tower, its mechanism imported from England, still chiming every fifteen minutes despite a 1985 fire. Nearby, Nizam’s Restaurant claims the invention of the kathi roll and several fading art deco cinemas, among them New Empire, Globe and Roxy, dot the area. At 27 Chowringhee stands the Indian Museum, founded 1814, arguably Asia’s largest, with 36 galleries around a central courtyard.