BA R R AC K P O R E

Barrackpore Park and Cantonment (1841), reproduced from Lord Curzon, British Government in India, Volume 2 (London,
New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassell and Company Ltd, 1925).

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 The Government House in Barrackpore, like the Raj Bhavan
at Kolkata, was a brainchild of Lord Wellesley, and took shape
at the turn of the eighteenth century. Barrackpore derives its
name from a British barrack or cantonment that was founded
there in 1775, with a few bungalows for Europeans soon coming
up in it. One of the first bungalows that was built there for
officers was for Captain Mackintyre, which in 1785 was bought
by the Bengal Government – along with 70 acres of land – for
the occupation of the British Commander-in-Chief. The first
Governor-General who was also Commander-in-Chief – and
was thus entitled to this house – was Lord Cornwallis.

Previous page: South façade of renovated Government House, now

functioning as a museum run by West Bengal Police. Lotus fountain previously
part of Agra Fort shown in foreground

Right top: ‘Plan of Barrackpore Park,’ reproduced from Lord Curzon, British
Government in India, Volume 2 (1925)

Right bottom: Barrackpore – lithograph by [Link] and J.D. Harding from

sketches made by Charles Hardinge in his Recollections from India, London,
1847 (Victoria Memorial Hall – C1690A)

Next page: Pagodas below Barrackpore, hand–coloured engraving by T.

Sutherland and G. Hunt from drawings by Lieutenant Colonel Forrest,
included in his A Picturesque Tour along the Rivers Ganges and Jumna in India,
London, 1824 (Victoria Memorial Hall – C1513)

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 Fort William.

December, 31st, 1800.

Private
In 1800 the British Commander-in-Chief was Sir Alured
Clarke, who had been an Acting Governor-General for a brief
My dear Sir,
period in 1798, and whose army had defeated Tipu Sultan in the
Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, thereby concluding the Fourth
I entirely forgot to speak to you yesterday on a subject, which had been a matter of communication between
us last year, but was dropped by me under the apprehension of interfering with your private convenience. I refer to the Anglo-Mysore War. After his assumption of the office of the
Country Residence of Barrackpore, which I have long thought the most eligible situation for the Garden House of the
Governor-General. I remember that you entertained some doubts with respect to the claims and convenience of your Governor-General in May 1798, Lord Wellesley became interested
Successors in the Command. I have examined the whole question with attention, and I am perfectly satisfied that the
Country Residence at Barrackpore is entirely at the disposal of the Government, that it has accidentally passed into
in this house and developed certain plans for its alteration and
the hands of the Commander-in-Chief, and that it is resumable at the pleasure of the Governor General in Council. It
is therefore evident to me that no right of the Commander-in-Chief would be affected by the resumption of the Place,
expansion. By the winter of 1800, by which time Wellesley had been
whenever any person holding my station might think fit to resume it. With respect to the convenience of any future conferred the title of ‘Captain General and Commanding in Chief Though this was also the time when the majestic,
Commander-in-Chief, it might be easy to provide for that, either by erecting another Bungalow in the neighbourhood of
the Cantonment, or by assigning a proper Garden House for his use. While the separate command of the Governor General of all the Forces of the Crown in the East Indies,’ he became very newly-built Government House in Kolkata mostly preoccupied
over the Cantonment of Barrackpore shall continue, no other reason, than the superior healthiness of the air, seems to
recommend the vicinity of Barrackpore for the Residence of the Commander-in-Chief. I have stated these considerations keen to move into the Barrackpore house during the approaching his mind, Wellesley began immediately to enlarge the house
merely for the purpose of apprizing you of the general reasons, which have determined me (whenever you shall embark
for Europe and your personal convenience shall no longer be in question), to resume the Residence at Barrackpore; and to hot season. Accordingly, on 31 December 1800 he wrote to Sir at Barrackpore and improve the park around it. By his own
annex it permanently to the Government General; making such an arrangement for the accommodation of your Successor
Alured Clarke that the latter’s residence was to be taken over for account, the ‘old cottage’ was in a dilapidated state when he
as he may judge most eligible. My determination will absolve you from all embarrassment with regard to those motives
of delicacy, which I know you always feel with respect to any supposed claims or rights belongings to your Command;
use by the Governor-General, and, accordingly, the transfer was took it over, and captain Charles Wyatt – Engineer in the
since my mind is entirely decided on the question, although no consideration would ever have induced me to press it upon
your attention, if you had remained in Bengal. Under all these circumstances I am desirous of stating a request to you,
done in February 1801. Wellesley later described Barrackpore as ‘a Bengal Army, the Superintendent of Public Works from 1803,
on which I must further entreat you to decide with reference to your personal convenience. It is my intention to pass the
approaching Hot Season at Barrackpore, and with this view, it would be extremely convenient to me to obtain possession
charming spot which, in my usual spirit of tyranny, I have plucked and the architect of the Government House at Calcutta – was
of the place as soon as possible, for the purpose of preparing the House more effectually against the Heat. If it should
not be inconvenient to you to allow the Place to pass into my hands, I should return you many thanks for such a mark from the Commander in Chief.’ engaged to carry out extensive repairs and improvements. The
of kindness. Whatever property may now be in the house or grounds, of which you wish to dispose, might be transferred
immediately at a just valuation. On this question I again request you to decide entirely according to your convenience, surrounding area was, in Wellesley’s own words, full of jungle
which I should be deeply concerned to disturb for a moment. My determination to occupy the Place immediately after
your departure necessarily excludes all question respecting the rights of your successor; you may be assured that I will and swamps, and he therefore set about turning a total area of
take care to render him ample justice, and to provide him with every suitable accommodation in the room of that which I
propose to appropriate to the Governor General.
about 350 acres into an English country-style park, digging
large ornamental tanks, and using the soil excavated for that
purpose to build hillocks and adding a generally undulating
“Believe me, Dear Sir, Always Yours
look to the landscape.
Sincerely,

(Signed) Wellesley
Lord Wellesley’s letter to Sir Alured Clark, dated 31
December 1800 (Victoria Memorial Hall – C620e) “H.E. Sir A Clarke, K.B.”

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 Wellesley’s efforts yielded impressive results, so that Lord Valentia – a British Peer and politician who
visited Barrackpore for a day in February 1803 as a guest of Lord Wellesley – wrote in the first volume of his
three-volume Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt (1809) that the house was a
very ‘pleasing’ building located at a vantage point near the River Hooghly and surrounded by an ‘English-style’
park with many shady trees. The English artist Henry Salt, who accompanied Lord Valentia, made a drawing of
the house that appears as a vignette at the top of one of the chapters of Voyages and Travels, in which the house
appears as one of sizeable proportions, with an English-type portico, and situated at the edge of the river.

In the sprawling Barrackpore park Wellesley set

up an aviary and what was probably Asia’s first menagerie,
which with his support also became the nucleus of a
Natural History project that aimed to inventory India’s
Menagerie at Barrackpore, by Sir Charles D’Oyly, hand-coloured lithograph entire animal wealth. After Wellesley’s departure from
taken from D’Oyly’s Views of Calcutta and its Environs, London, 1848 (Victoria India the project died down, but the animals were
Memorial Hall – R2566-16).
retained, and the menagerie survived for more than
seven decades, eventually inspiring the development of
the Zoological Gardens of Calcutta in Alipur.

Henry Salt’s vignette of Old Barrackpore House in Lord Valentia’s book – reproduced from Lord Curzon, British Government in Stables for horses in the West Bengal Police Training Academy. This is
India, Volume 2 (1925) the site where the Barrackpore menagerie was originally located.

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 In 1848 Lord Dalhousie described
the Barrackpore park as ‘quite home-like
in its character, and as English as anything
can be ….’ He, too, specifically mentioned
the menagerie, which at various times
housed tigers, leopards, monkeys, bears,
rhinoceroses, and a giraffe that completely
bowled over Dost Mohammed, the exiled
Amir of Afghanistan who came to stay with
Lord Auckland and his sisters at Barrackpore
for some time in the early 1840s. In addition
quite a few elephants were part of the
Governor-General’s hatikhana or elephant
stable, being used for rides in the Barrackpore
park and the surrounding countryside. Entrance to Barrackpore Park, by Sir Charles D’Oyly, hand-coloured lithograph Entrance to Barrackpore Park at present.
taken from D’Oyly’s Views of Calcutta and its Environs, London, 1848 (Victoria
Lady Canning riding an elephant in Barrackpore park, albumen silver print, c. 1855 Memorial Hall – R2566-17).
(Victoria Memorial Hall- R1704-1054).

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 Insatiably ambitious and given to pomp and grandeur,
It appears, however, that in the eventual analysis Wellesley was Wellesley even planned to connect the two Government Houses
associated with not one but three buildings in Barrackpore. In early 1804, in Kolkata and Barrackpore by a straight road which was to cut
by which time the novelty of the stately Kolkata mansion had begun to wear through some of the most thickly-populated parts of Kolkata.
off on him, he came to re-focus on Barrackpore, where he found the existing Thomas Anbury, who succeeded Captain Charles Wyatt as the
house – acquired originally from Sir Alured Clark and visited by Lord Superintendent of Public Works, was probably the architect of
Valentia – ‘unsafe’ and ‘incapable of repair.’ Accordingly, he demolished the the grandiose building that Wellesley planned on the riverfront.
house and started to build a humongous palace that was estimated to cost However, only the first storey of his ambitious new palace was
around £50,000, in comparison to the £66,000 that was spent on its Kolkata built by the time he was recalled by the Court of Directors in
counterpart. Again, like the Government House in Kolkata, the palace at August 1805. The Court of Directors ordered the suspension
Barrackpore was intended to be built without the knowledge, and in defiance of work on the Barrackpore House, and it was subsequently
of the instructions, of the Court of Directors in London, whose letters took dismantled. Subsequently, Governor General Lord Moira or the
A View of the Barrackpore House on the River Houghly, c. 1810, almost a year to reach India.
engraving by James Moffat (VMH - R2336). Marquess of Hastings (1813-23) cleared the ground and his wife
put up a greenhouse or conservatory at the spot.
Restored staircase adjacent to southern façade of Raj Bhavan, Barrackpore.

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 In between Wellesley’s demolition of
the original house and his departure from India,
he built a temporary bungalow with three large
bedrooms and a wide verandah, which now
became the occasional residence of Governor-
Generals and later Viceroys, and came to be
called the Government House, Barrackpore.
As many as twenty-four Governors-Generals
and Viceroys of India resided in it for various
stretches of time, until its final abandonment as a
Viceregal residence in 1912. Quite a few of them
added their own touches to the building. Sir
George Barlow (1805-1807) erected small rooms
at every corner of the southern verandah. Lord
Hastings (1813-1823), who shaped the house
into its final form and embellished its various
decorative features, added side wings, a Portico,
Top: A view of Barrackpore House with the
and an upper Entrance Hall that came to be used reach of the river, coloured aquatint taken
later as a billiard room. In front of the South from James Baillie Fraser, Views of Calcutta
and its Environs, London, 1824-6 (Victoria
entrance of the building, he installed a lotus Memorial Hall – R2556-10)
basin and fountain made of marble, which Lord Bottom: Government House, Barrackpore, by
Curzon believed to have been originally installed Sir Charles D’Oyly, pen-and-ink sketch from
Views of Calcutta and its Environs (Victoria
in the Agra Fort by one of the Great Mughals. Memorial Hall – R2927-3).

A View of Serampore, from the Park at Barrackpore, coloured aquatint from Fraser, Views of Calcutta (Victoria Memorial Hall – R2556-21)

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 Top: Southern facade of Government House, Barrackpore, photograph
Since then, no major structural changes were ever taken by Samuel Bourne, c. 1865 – reproduced from Lord Curzon, British
Government in India, Volume 2 (1925).
attempted in the ‘Barrackpore House,’ except for relatively
Left: Plan of Southern Elevation of Barrackpore Government House, with
minor modifications. Lord Auckland (1835–42) added suggested verandahs, not eventually executed (c. 1905) – (Victoria Memorial
a balcony to the Western façade. Lord Lytton (1876–80) Hall - R1882).

installed an exterior staircase adjacent to the Southern façade

to replace an undignified iron staircase. Lord Ripon (1880–84)
laid a wooden porch in front of the newly-installed staircase.
Government House, Barrackpore, North, gelatinsilver plate from the Johnston and Hoffmann photographic studio, c. 1895 (Victoria Memorial Hall -
R2895).

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 The second Lord Elgin (the 9th Earl
of Elgin, 1894–99) installed a stone sundial
close to the lotus fountain in 1895. The
second Lord Minto (the 4th Earl of Minto,
1905–10) fitted the building with electric
lights for the first time, laid the floor in the
drawing room and redecorated the entire
house, in addition to installing a large
stone basin and fountain, which have been
restored now after years of neglect. Additions
and modifications – often carried out at the
behest of the ‘First Ladies’ of British India –
were not limited to the Government House
itself, but shaped the surroundings as well.

Top: A close-up of the stone sundial

Bottom: The Minto fountain.

Previous page: Southern façade of restored Raj Bhavan,

Barrackpore, with the stone sundial installed by the second
Lord Elgin in the foreground

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 In 1813 Lord Minto built a cenotaph in the
park, also known as ‘The Temple of Fame,’ which
was modelled like a Greek temple and was erected
in memory of the officers who fell during the British
conquest of Java and Mauritius in 1810 and 1811.
Lord Auckland and his two sisters Emily and Fanny
Eden, who accompanied him to India, set up a plant
and seed house and added a flower garden adjacent
to it. Lord Ellenborough (1842–44) built a riverwalk.

Left: A list, inscribed inside the Temple of Fame, of British officers who died in the conquest of Java in 1810

Right: Inside the Cenotaph or Temple of Fame

Previous page: The Cenotaph or Temple of Fame in the gardens adjacent to Flagstaff House, Barrackpore, with the statue of King
George V, adorned with his Star of India medal

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 Lady Canning (1856–61), who
was especially fond of Barrackpore,
laid out an Italian garden and built a
raised walk from the house all the way
down to the ghat or landing stage on
the river, while Lady Ripon covered
it with a green and shady canopy of
bamboo. Lady Canning, who died in
1861 from a bout of malaria and was
Bamboo Tunnel from Government House to Banyan Tree, opened up by Lady Canning –
buried in the Barrackpore park near Landing Stage on river, built by Lady Ripon – photograph reproduced from Lord Curzon, British
the river, also opened up a big banyan photograph reproduced from Lord Curzon, British Government in India, Volume 2 (1925).
Government in India, Volume 2 (1925).
tree in the park by clearing the shrubs
around it. That banyan tree, which still
exists, is older than its rival – the great
banyan tree in the Botanical Garden
at Shibpur – though the growth of its
circumference was limited by artificial
means. As N.V.H. Symons wrote in 1935
in his The Story of Government House,
that banyan tree had ‘sheltered the
present King and Queen’ – King George
V of England and his wife Queen Mary
– who had toured India in 1905-6 as Top: Countess (Lady) Canning, albumen print, c. 1861 (Victoria Memorial Hall – R1427).
the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Top right: Inscription on Lady Canning’s tomb, Barrackpore.
visited Barrackpore.
Bottom right: Lady Canning Memorial, Barrackpore, with Lord Canning’s equestrian statue on the left.

The banyan tree as it looks at present.

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 Although the Government House at Barrackpore was
a mere shadow of what Wellesley’s grand and ambitious plan
could have produced, it was still spacious enough to serve
as a country residence for Governor-Generals and Viceroys,
and to occasionally host balls and entertainments, especially
in the hot summer season. Its large central drawing room
also hosted church services before the Barrackpore Church
came up in 1847. Bishop Heber, the Lord Bishop of Calcutta
in the 1820s, preached in the house in 1823, and the famous
Christian Baptist missionary trio of the Serampore Mission –
William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward – often
visited the Barrackpore House as guests of the Governor
General. Up to the early 1860s, the journey from Calcutta
to Barrackpore was made by the State Yacht, accompanied
by several barges that carried a large retinue of servants.
Even for short stays, furniture and other possessions were
often transported temporarily from the Government House
in Calcutta. On their arrival at the Barrackpore House for
a weekend trip, Lord Auckland and his two sisters were
amazed to find all of their personal possessions, including
their pianoforte, awaiting them. Two days later, all of this was
brought back to Calcutta.

Left: Ornate coat of arms on gate at the entrance to the Raj Bhavan
gardens.

Facing page top: The river Ganga at Barrackpore, near the Lady
Canning Memorial

Facing page left bottom: Balustrade bridge over the ‘Moti Jheel’ lake to
the north of the Raj Bhavan, separating the Governor’s establishment
from the cantonment.

Facing page right bottom: Old photograph of the bridge

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 After 1864, however, Governor-Generals began
spending the hot summer months in Simla, which now became
the new summer capital of British India, and Barrackpore
became just an occasional weekend retreat. The downsizing of
the military garrison at Barrackpore after the Revolt of 1857
made parties and balls a thing of the past. Barrackpore also
came to be connected with Calcutta by rail in 1862, which also
made the elaborate river journeys obsolete.

Previous page: Restored gateway providing entrance to the Raj Bhavan

gardens, now a restricted area because of the use of the space by the
training academy of West Bengal Police

Top: Barrackpore Railway Station, c. 1900, gelatin silver plate from the River Hugly from Cossipore to Barrackpore,
Johnston and Hoffmann photographic studio, (Victoria Memorial Hall - survey map, c. 1875 (VMH - R8158).
R2894).
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 The guest and staff bungalows of
the Government House complex, which
were originally thatched houses strewn
around the main building, were rebuilt
in a more elegant style in 1863, under
the first Lord Elgin (the 8th Earl of Elgin,
1862-63). One of these bungalows,
situated North-West of the Government
House, was called Flagstaff House and
acted as the residential quarters of
Previous page: Entrance pathway to Flagstaff House, occasionally used by the
the Private Secretary to the Viceroy of Governor of West Bengal each year.
British India.
Top: The formal sitting room of Flagstaff House.

Next page: The sprawling verandah at the back of Flagstaff House, overlooking
the western gardens.

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 After independence, the Government House
was handed over to the Government of West Bengal,
which turned the building now called the ‘Raj
Bhavan’ like the Government House in Calcutta –
into a police academy and police hospital in 1948. The
hospital was later shifted out. Though the building
continues to be under the care of West Bengal Police,
the police training academy, too, has been shifted
out of the building which is now being restored to its
former glory under the careful direction of heritage-
minded police officers. The restored building now
houses a museum. With the ‘Raj Bhavan’ donated
to the state government, it was the Flagstaff House
that in 1947 became the Barrackpore residence of
the Governor of West Bengal. It is maintained by
staff associated with the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, and the
Governor of West Bengal visits it occasionally each
year, and regularly on 2 October, Mahatma Gandhi’s
birthday, to pay respects to the Gandhi Memorial by
the river, where the Mahatma’s ashes are enshrined.

Top left: The plaque of the Swami Vivekananda State Police

Academy of the West Bengal Police, which is located inside
the Raj Bhavan gardens.
Decorative plaque installed at the ‘Westside Gallery,’ the museum started by the West Bengal Police that is currently housed in the
restored Raj Bhavan. Middle & Below: Arms seized by the police both before
and after Indian independence that are on display at the
museum.

Next page: Arms on display in the Westside Gallery

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 The Flagstaff House is located in a well-
preserved garden with many old and shady
trees, right by the river Ganges and a few
metres from the ‘Temple of Fame,’ the
cenotaph erected by Lord Minto. In 1969,
a number of statutes of British personages
were shifted to the Flagstaff House grounds
from various places in Kolkata. The statues
include those of King George V, seven
Viceroys of British India – Lord Canning
(1856–62), Sir John Lawrence (1864–69),
Lord Mayo (1869–72), Lord Northbrook
The equestrian statue of Lord Mayo, with one of the horse’s legs raised to indicate
(1872–76), Lord Lansdowne (1888–94), the death of its rider in battle – Mayo was assassinated by a convict in 1872, while
Lord Curzon (1899–1905), and Lord visiting the penal settlement of the Andamans.

Minto (1905–10) – one Secretary of State

for India, Edwin S. Montagu (1917–22),
one Governor of Bengal, Lord Ronaldshay
(1917–22), one Lieutenant Governor of
Bengal, Sir John Woodburn (1898–1902),
and two military generals, Sir William Peel
(1824–58), a distinguished naval officer
who served during the Crimean War and
the Indian Revolt of 1857, and Lord Napier
of Magdala (1810–1890), an engineer and
general who played a crucial part in the
The statue of Lord Curzon – sculpted by Sir William Hamo Thornycroft, who The equestrian statue of the second Lord Minto (1905-10) in the Flagstaff House
Anglo-Sikh Wars and also in 1857. The gardens attached to the Flagstaff House, from which flowers were also made some of London’s best-known statues – which was removed from the gardens, with his right hand holding what could be a thin-rolled scroll, a thin
once supplied to Raj Bhavan, Kolkata. Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, to Barrackpore in 1969. Curzon’s gown shows a telescope or, even possibly a very short baton.
distinctively Roman style. Behind him can be seen a Semaphore Tower, used for
communications before the telegraph.
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 Notwithstanding the idyllic charm of a quiet countryside, which made
Barrackpore especially attractive to the Governor-Generals and Viceroys as an
occasional retreat, the Government House was witness to quite a few episodes of
turmoil. In 1824, Lord and Lady Amherst narrowly escaped being caught in the
middle of a mutiny which broke out among the Indian regiments of the Barrackpore
cantonment over their refusal to cross the seas to fight in the First Anglo-Burmese
War – because crossing the kala pani or the ‘black waters’ of the sea was thought to
result in a loss of one’s caste – and raged only at a short distance from the house, with
stray bullets wounding a few of the Governor-General’s staff. In 1857, of course,
Barrackpore was the place that launched the Revolt, and during the conflagration
that raged till the disbanding of the mutinous regiments, the Government House
was in real danger of being attacked and damaged. Today, Barrackpore park is
named ‘Mangal Pandey Udyan’ in memory of the brave soldier who sparked off
the Revolt of 1857, but in popular parlance the entire Barrackpore house and park
complex is referred to as Latbagan, that is, the gubernatorial gardens.
Minute dated 1 April 1857, in Governor-General’s Lord Canning’s own handwriting, bearing his signature and those of the Members of the Governor-General’s Council,
regarding the outbreak of the ‘disturbance’ (the Revolt of 1857) at Barrackpore on the occasion of the disbandment of the 19th Native Infantry - who in February had refused
to practise with the infamous Enfield Rifle, which used cartridges that were believed to use beef and pork fat as greasing agent - and the admirable conduct of Major-General
John Bennett Hearsey. Victoria Memorial Hall, C1978.

Next page: The back (western) gardens of Flagstaff House

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