METCALF HALL & OLD CURRENCY BUILDING

 Metcalf Hall

Metcalfe Hall is a heritage building situated at the junction of Strand Road and Hare Street The architecture is reflective of the British imperial architecture at the middle of the nineteenth century, and visually similar to ancient Greek temples. The building is raised on a solid basement and thirty huge Corinthian pillars support a massive entablature. The columns and colonnade surround the whole building.

It was built between 1840-1844 according to the design prepared by the city magistrate, C.K. Robinson and named after Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, the Governor-General of India, in honour of his efforts towards a free press. The building faces the Hooghly river on the West.

Initially, the building housed the Calcutta Public Library collection, formed by Lord Metcalf, then the Governor General, who transferred 4,675 volumes from the library of the College of Fort William. These volumes and donations of books from individuals formed the nucleus of the library, which was created under private auspices. Dwarkanath Tagore was the first proprietor of Calcutta Public Library.








Old currency building

A majestic white building (150-year-old) overlooking Dalhousie Square is the Old Currency Building. All three floors of the western wing — facing Esplanade station of the East-West Metro — houses the permanent exhibition “Ghare Baire | The World, The Home and Beyond: 18th-20th Century Art in Bengal”. Conservation and restoration work has been carried out in the building to turn it into a hub for exhibitions. The building was “founded in 1833” and first housed Agra Bank. The building got its present name when “the government occupied a large portion of it for its Currency Department in 1886 from the Agra Bank Limited”. Currency Building had been in use till 1994. The central public works department (CPWD), which was in charge of the building, started demolishing the structure in 1996. In the book White and Black, Soumitra Das writes that the destruction was stopped after the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Intach (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) intervened. The ASI was given custody of the building in 2005. But the three massive central domes had been pulled down by then. This is a handsome three storied building, designed in Italian style; the walls were made of brick. The roof was arched on iron joist and the floor covered with marble and chunar sandstone. A handsome gate at the entrance in three parts is of a very florid design in wrought iron. The Central Hall gets sunlight through skylights overtopping the large domes. The Currency office has a vault of a massive masonry lime on its roof, walls and floor.

The second floor is similarly designed and the then Assistant Commissioner in-charge of the Currency Building had his residence there. The rooms above are spacious and are paved with Italian marbles. The present exhibition is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and curated and organised by DAG, in collaboration with NGMA, this museum-exhibition is the first comprehensive showcasing of the art and artists of Bengal.


Inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 11th January 2020, Ghare Baire provides a glimpse of the richness, diversity and depth of Bengal’s art over the centuries. The exhibition is sectioned into 12 broad categories, showcasing over 600 artworks of which the majority are from the DAG collection and 19 important works from the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi.


DAG has done seminal work in gaining recognition for India’s modern masters whose legacies had been lost to time and apathy in the absence of sufficient viewers, collectors, promoters, curators or scholars. The gallery’s focus has always been research-led. It has documented the works of the finest twentieth century artists, lifting them out of recent oblivion to get them their due appreciation while aligning them with various art movements across the country. Ranging all the way from pre-modern art to modern art practices and tracking the changes in response to constant innovation and experimentation, DAG’s long-term perspective has been at the forefront of most of its activities. This includes its historical curatorial exercises, its publishing and filmmaking programmes, its art appreciation workshops and education initiatives, interfaces with the financial and corporate sectors by way of talks and curated walks, relationship building with institutions and museums around the world, participation in international art fairs, or creating tactile aids for the specially-abled. DAG’s galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai and New York are at the forefront of this movement and have provided a destination for those wanting to discover the enduring pull of Indian modern art.

Date of visit: March 2020
















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