HASTINGS' HOUSES




    Kiran Shankar Ray Road







Belvedere House

Barasat


Hasting's House, Alipore

Warren Hastings the first Governor General of Bengal (17773-1785) dwelt in different houses of Kolkata. St John’s Cathedral was begun by Hastings as was the Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Calcutta Madrassa.

Belvedere house located at Alipore have been Hastings’s abode till 1780s. The house is believed to be built by Mir Jafar Ali Khan who gifted it to Warren Hastings as a token of appreciation on being reinstated as the Nawab of Bengal. The architecture of the Belvedere house is of Italian Renaissance style. The duel between Hastings and his legal officer Philip Francis was fought on the sprawling grounds of this mansion in August 1780. The building was sold to Major Tolly and later used as Lieutenant Governor’s House till the East India Company shifted its capital to Delhi in 1911. It was used as the Calcutta residence of Viceroy of India till 1947. Since 1948 a part of the estate functions as the National Library of India.

Not very far from Belvedere on Judges Court Road is “Hastings House”, a smaller and more intimate house where he preferred to spend his weekends. Hastings House had sprawling lawns and beautiful old trees and had been restored by Lord Curzon for visiting dignitaries. Since 1954 it has been run as the Institute of Education for Women (for B.Ed training). Alipore Multipurpose School and one of the buildings of Calcutta University is now present in the adjoining grounds. Sister Nivedita Government General Degree for Girls also started in this ground on 2015. Its frontage is now entirely concealed by Soujanya, the state banquet hall.

Both the Belvedere House and Hastings House are believed to be haunted by Hastings himself who occasionally comes back in a horse-drawn carriage.

Other houses associated with Hastings are located at Rishera (North Kolkata), Sukhsagar (Hoogly), Kiran Shankar Road (Central Kolkata) and at Barasat. His wife and children however lived in Murshidabad.

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