Manna Dey and the Legacy of Coffee House

  • The Coffee Board of India selected two venues India Coffee House on C. R. Avenue and Albert Hall Coffee House at College Street. While the former remained under the Central Government Board, the later formed its own Indian Coffee Workers' Cooperative Society.
  • Indian Coffee House also known as the College Street Coffee House at Bankim Chatterjee Street is intricately woven with Bengali culture particularly as a meeting place for college students and the Bengal intelligentsia from the time of Quit India movement to the present day. 
  • The Coffee House stands on the site where the first medical college in Asia started in January 1835.
  • The coffee house is famous for its ‘adda’ sessions, and as the birth place of several political and cultural ideas.
  • Coffee House is a part of a huge chain of 400 outlets that began its journey in 1936, when the first Indian Coffee House opened its doors at Churchgate, Mumbai. 
  • College Street Coffee House was first established in a building that used to be the residence of the great Bengali Philosopher and social reformer Shri Keshab Chandra Sen. Later this place was dedicated to Prince Albert Victor of Wales and was named “Albert Hall”. 
  • In 1942, the Coffee Board decided to start a coffee place from the Albert Hall, and after independence in 1947, the Central Government renamed it to “Indian Coffee House”. 
  • In 1958 the management decided to shut down the Coffee House, but it was re-opened the same year, after professors of Presidency College and Calcutta University rushed off a special petition to the government, to save the heritage place.
  • In the year 1994 The Supreme Court of India recognized Coffee House as a cultural center of India and declared it a Heritage building. 
  • Upon entering one is greeted with noise, smoke, nostalgia, clatter of cutleries, fragrance of coffee, and waiters moving their way through the commotion. 
  • The second floor Balcony Section called as “house of the lords”. Charge two Rupees (INR) higher than in the 1st floor main hall, “house of the commons”. 
  • The menu, price list, freedom to sit for hours, the intellectual aura, the warmth of the uniformed waiters and the feel of the bygone era continue to invoke charm. 
  • In spite of facing several financial and management related hurdles the place continues to retain its originality. 
  • Incidentally, a New Coffee House opened its door at New Town, Action Area II in 2020. Here one finds certain similarities with the iconic Coffee House in the menu, rates, dress of the waiter, cast iron latticework, Corinthian columns, long ceiling fans and the verandah on the upper floor. The ceiling made of steel kori-borga and the floor with hexagonal tiles with a 3D effect lends a colonial feel. New amenities include a library, air conditioned interiors, WiFi and outdoor seating area. The sharp contrast in the ambience of the old and new Coffee House is easily noticeable.
THE ICONIC COFFEE HOUSE,COLLEGE STREET
The Entrance



Entering the first floor

Balcony..... The house of the Lords

Uniformed

Oil paintings of the bygone era


Signature item.... Chicken Cutlet

THE NEWTOWN COFFEE HOUSE
The Entrance
The traditional gear

Paintings of Kolkata flavour

Interior

View from the varendah

The Coffee House has been memorialized in a famous song sung by Manna Dey titled Coffee House'er shei adda'ta aaj aar nei (That Coffee House adda is long gone now).
  • Veteran singer and music director Manna Dey (original name Prabodh Chandra Dey) was born in 1919 to Mahamaya and Purna Chandra Dey. 
  • Besides his parents, his youngest paternal uncle, Sangeetacharya Krishna Chandra Dey highly inspired and influenced him. 
  • The house at Ramdulal Sarkar Street, near the iconic sweet shop Gokul and Nakur Chandra Dey, was the place lived by both these musical stalwarts all throughout their lives. 
  • K.C. Dey was a music director, music composer, musician, singer and actor. He was the first teacher and mentor to the iconic Bollywood composer Sachin Dev Burman. He worked for various theatre groups and is best remembered for his Kirtan songs. He was patronized by many elite families of Calcutta including Rajbari of Sovabazar, Mitra House of Beadon Street and many others at that time. He recorded around 600 songs, mostly in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Gujrati. 
  • In 1942, Manna Dey accompanied his uncle to Bombay and started working as an assistant music director under him. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhendibazaar Gharana and was trained under Ustad Aman Ali Khan. He is considered one of the most versatile and celebrated vocalists of the Hindi film industry and is credited with the success of Indian classical music in Hindi commercial movies. Dey recorded over 3500 songs in 14 languages mostly in Bengali and Hindi. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Shri in 1971, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1975, the highest honour conferred by Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Padma Bhushan in 2005 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007.

 

Plaque at the lane

Plaque at the house

House of Krishna Chandra Dey and Manna Dey

Gramaphone record of K.C. Dey


References:
  1.  Flavours of another era
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Street_Coffee_House
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_Dey
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._C._Dey


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