Kolkata: more colonial heritage in one city than whole of US, yet its architectural wealth is under constant threat

The British left footprints across their far-flung colonial empire, from Toronto to Yangon. But nowhere is there as vast and varied a collection of heritage architecture as there is in Kolkata.

Thousands of buildings – including homes, churches, palaces and even synagogues – survive from the days of British rule.

Ghost stories find fertile ground in Indian city of Calcutta

This marvellously exuberant, maddeningly chaotic city began its recorded history as a small trading post in the 1690s, rose to become the seat of British power and now ranks as India’s third largest city, a megalopolis of almost 15 million people.

Unlike countries which opted to eradicate the physical legacies of colonialism, India has accepted them as witnesses to history. The prime eradicator of Kolkata’s past has not been politics but those whom preservationists call “land sharks” – developers against whom they wage a sometimes winning, sometimes losing battle.

To dip into Kolkata’s bygone era, my wife and I stayed at the Oberoi Grand Hotel, took afternoon tea at the still oh-so-English Bengal Club and signed up for a guided walk around Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh, formerly known as Dalhousie Square, the one-time epicentre of the British Raj.

Dating back to the late 1880s, the Grande Dame of Calcutta, as the Oberoi was known, was the social hub of the colonial city. During the second world war, it was party headquarters for American soldiers.