When inaugurated on New Year’s Day in 1874, it was indeed a new market. By the time it was metamorphosed to a proper noun, the old market it replaced, vanished. Or almost!
There was an old market at the very spot of the new. To the growing European population of the city, the old market with filthy lanes and bustees was not really a place that could be frequented. Neither was the ‘black town’ or the native colony a place for the aristocrats to go shopping. With memories of the 1857 mutiny still fresh, it was also probably a bit risky for Europeans to shoulder-brush with the natives.
So there was a cry for a safe and proper market that offered everything under one roof. In 1866, with Sir Stuart Hogg as the Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation, a resolution was passed to have one. Two years later Hogg would once again stamp his name on the city by setting up the Detective Department in the Calcutta Police. He would manage both his duties with equal ease simultaneously. But that is another story.
The market was to come up on a grand scale at the heart of Calcutta. The premier architect Richard Roskell Bayne, an architect of the East India Railway Company was called upon to design one on the lines of a Victorian Gothic market complex. The Mackintosh Company was responsible for completing the construction. Its entrance was on Lindsay Street named after Robert Lindsay.
The huge market complex was built with red bricks, arched windows and fantastic facades. The famous clock tower is completely North country Victorian. It is said that that this clock tower was shipped from Huddersfield to Calcutta brick by brick.
The ‘old market’, Fenwick’s Bazaar, was pulled down. Calcutta was to get her first municipal market at a cost of around Rs.6,65,000. It would be a supermarket in the real sense. Big names like Thacker Spink, Cuthbertson and Harper and Ranken and Company would open shops here. Nahoum’s would also join the list in 1902 – the same year that gramophones had started silently entering Calcutta in early December.
Most shops in New Market claim to date back to the year of inauguration for goodwill, but that is debatable!
The only thing that was lacking was probably a proper name. The Municipal Market seemed too shabby for the grand array of stores. And who else but Sir Stuart Hogg deserved the honour for the market to be named after? So in 1903, the market was renamed during Lord Curzon’s rule. However the rechristening did not strike much chord.
Interestingly, even the ‘Fenwick’s Bazaar’ name has not been totally erased from memory. Some shops, like Sarala Stores has ‘Finick Bazar Street, New Market’ on its name plate.
Interestingly even though Calcutta made its name to ‘Kolkata’, the words ‘Finick Bazar Street’ still remains beside the city’s new name in the name plate. The new name of the city and the old name of the market, does not seem to gel!
New Market saw its glory days during most part of the last century. Even post 1947, it had that British aura around it. All this was to change. A sizeable part of the market would be lost to fire in 1985. Calcutta would miss the live music while having dinner at Karco’s first floor. It was the same restaurant where a part of the Bengali film “Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant” was shot.
The fire would partially destroy the all-under-one-roof concept. The building that replaced it would stand in shame beside the remaining majestic part of the British legacy. What would stay though is one of the oldest market in the city always remaining new including the charm and relaxation on a shopping outing there irrespective of the crowd.
Sources:
1. Calcutta Old and New
– H.E.A. Cotton (pp. 770-771)
2. Calcutta Then and Now – Rathin Mitra (pp. 38, 39; Ananda Publishers)
With inputs from Srimoyee Podder