South Park Street Cemetery is located on Mother Teresa Sarani, Kolkata, India. The road used to be called Park Street, and prior to that Burial Ground Road.HistoryThe Park Street Cemetery was one of the earliest non-church cemeteries in the world, and probably the largest Christian cemetery outside Europe and America in the 19th century. Opened in 1767 on what was previously a marshy area, the cemetery was in use until about 1830 and is now a heritage site, protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The cemetery was opened to relieve the pressure on the old burial ground in the heart of the city. The road leading to the cemetery came to be known as the Burial Ground Road but was subsequently renamed Park Street after the park around Vansittart’s garden house. By the year 1785 the burial ground had been extended on the northern side of Park Street and by 1840 a vast new cemetery was opened to the east of the Lower Circular Road. The Europeans started to disuse it in the year 1790. It has been confirmed by a marble plaque at the gate which reads “South Park Street, Opened:1767, Closed:1790”.Tollywood’s Bengali film, Gorosthaney Sabdhan (literal translation: Beware in the cemetery) was shot here. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Satyajit Ray.
Only if the dead could talk. The South Park Street Cemetry has some of the grandest tombstones eclectic for sure.
The European Shah Jahans came to India to rule and subjugate. The climate and battles took its toll. Men women and children died. The Monsoon Ball took place to celebrate the ones who survived a year of rains and tropical diseases.
The large premises was a joint stock cemetery probably the first away from a church and filled up soon enough. Four more came up in the vicinity though only this one survives not built over by realtors later.
Maybe because it is home to luminaries. Derozio, William Jones, Hindoo Stuart, Charles Dickens’ nephew, Gastin, Hyde among others
Anirban Bhadra the author of Pompous Graves took us on a fascinating audio visual journey of the history, funerary architecture, masonry.
It was good business. These tombstones largely made of cement due to absence of stone imitated Neo classical styles with some Indian flourishes added by the local craftspersons. IT was good business and many firms thrived and also advertised widely during the monsoon months. Post which the foreigners succumbed to native diseases generally.
Interestingly many tombstones carry the signature of the firm in charge of the process.
A very interesting morning where the dead came to life in the stillness of the foliage and the birds.
I plead with relevant organisation’s to help preserve this magnificent place before it crumbles to dust with its inmates
Buy the book!