Kolkata was once one of the great cosmopolitan global cities and has the architecture to prove it. Drawn to Kolkata by the immense wealth of Bengal, the British made the city their effective capital from 1773 to 1911. For centuries it was a thriving commercial hub, pivotal in the extractive colonial economy and home to a diverse mix of Hindus, Muslims and countless other religions and ethnicities. The city’s architectural heritage includes impressive administrative and commercial buildings at its core, but also the homes of the Indian middle and upper classes in richly textured suburbs such as Bhowanipore.

Kolkata also played a key role in the 19^th-century Bengal renaissance. This effervescent flowering of Bengali cultural life and political awareness led directly to Bengal being seen as a key centre of resistance to Britain’s continued presence in India. Britain’s vindictive response was to first partition Bengal and then move the capital to Delhi in 1911. By the time of independence, British rule had transformed Kolkata from a city once at the heart of one of the wealthiest regions on earth, to one of the poorest.

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