New Market, Calcutta

New Market in 2011

New Market is a market in Kolkata situated on Lindsay Street. Technically, it referred to an enclosed market but today in local parlance the entire Lindsay Street shopping area is often known as New Market.

History

Some of the earliest English quarters were in an area known then as Dalhousie Square. Terretti and Lal Bazar nearby were customary marketing haunts of the British gentry. Later settlements were in Kashaitola, Dharmatala and Chowringhee.

As Calcutta entered the 1850s and British colonies became the order of the day, the Britishers overtly displayed their contempt to brush shoulders with “natives” at the bazaars. In 1871, swayed by an orchestrated cry from English residents, a committee of the Calcutta Corporation contemplated a market which would be the prize preserve of Calcutta’s British citizens. Spurred by the committee’s deliberations, the Corporation promptly purchased Lindsay Street. The East India Railway Company executed the designs and with a renowned architect R. Bayne, pitching, an architecturally Gothic market-complex crystallized in 1873. Bayne was honoured with a 1000 rupee award , arguably a large sum in the 1870s for his achievements. News of Calcutta’s first municipal market spread rapidly. Affluent Englishmen shopped at exclusive retailers like Rankin and Company (dressmakers), Cuthbertson and Harper (shoe-merchants) and R.W. Newman or Thacker Spink, the famous stationers and book-dealers.

New Market circa 1945

New Market was thrown open with fanfare to the English populace on January 1, 1874. New Market was formally christened Sir Stuart Hogg Market on December 2, 1903. Sir Stuart then Calcutta Corporation’s chairman, had tenaciously supported the plans for building New Market. To this day, a painting of Sir Stuart Hogg adorns Calcutta Corporation’s portrait gallery.This name was later shortened to Hogg Market. Bengali society, in the British Raj era, called it Hogg Saheber Bajaar, a name which is sometimes still used alongside the name New Market.

New Market’s growth kept pace with the city’s urbanization endeavours until World War II. The northern portion of the market came up in 1909 at an expense of 6 lakh rupees. Finally, beneath the gathering clouds of World War II, an extension on the south flanks was engineered. A finale to these structural expansions in the 1930s was the installation of New Market’s historic clock-tower.

Bata store in Linsday street

Fire of 1985 & 2011

A fire burned down large portions of the original building on December 13, 1985. It has since been rebuilt, and provided with a new wing. This new wing has come to be called as the New Market. It houses a famous kashmiri handicraft shop "PUMPOSH". Another fire broke out on July 20,2011 but was confined to a small area in the Flower Range near the Lindsay St. entrance.