The Park Street Graveyard Kolkata

Calcutta or Kolkata the former second capital of the British Empire has a rich colonial heritage and legacy. These legacy a can be found among its architecture, buildings, planning but more so among its glorious dead in the cemeteries of this city. The Park Street Graveyard, Kolkata is a concentration of the who’s who of British Raj and colonial times. In short its a city of the dead but by no means small. The Park Street Graveyard, Kolkata once consisted of five graveyards but only three survives today as the Lower Circular Road Cemetery, South Park Street Cemetery and the Scottish cemetery.

Earlier in the 18th century the road going near the Park Street Graveyard, Kolkata was called Burial Ground road later named Park Street .In the days of the early Raj the British were buried at St.Johns Church graveyard. But due to the rising population of the British a new cemetery was formed at Park Street. In those times Park Street was at the edge of the city and rarely any soul passed after dark. So it was quite a suitable place to create a graveyard.

Entering the South Park Street cemetery, part of the Park Street Graveyard, Kolkata is like entering a different world. Filled with colonial graves in the shape of massive pyramids, pavilions, obelisks, urns and pagodas seems that even in death they flaunted their socio-economic status by creating higher, bigger and intricately decorated graves.Employees from the East Indian Company to pre Independence graves can be found here. People like Richmond Thackery, Col.Akilis, Michael Madhusudhan Dutta, and Henry Louis Vivian Derozio are few of the famous luminaries resting in eternity here. There is certain romanticism in these graves as one reads through the beautiful inscription to the dearly departed.

The North Park Street Cemetery which existed is now the site of the Assembly of God Church School and Hospital with only a sole grave standing to remind its past. The Lower Circular Road cemetery still exists today and is still used for burial having a less number of monuments.

Park Street Graveyard, Kolkata is definitely a place for passionate historians and an open air history book for you to read and touch history. One cannot forget the experience of strolling down these impressive monuments of the dead on a lazy afternoon. It is indeed a valuable cultural reference point for Europeans and non-Europeans alike.