Architect Vincent Jerome Esch

Vincent Jerome Esch was born to Bernard Esch, a merchant banker of Blackheath, London and educated at Mount St Mary’s College, he then trained as an architect in London.

He came  to India in 1898 and was appointed assistant engineer on the Bengal Nagpur Railway and then he became an architect of the Raj in Calcutta. Esch enjoyed 25 years of success as an architect in Calcutta, where he became a proponent of the Indo-Saracenic style, a fusion of classical and Islamic styles. In 1922 he was made Commander of the Victorian Order. He later returned to England and died in Surrey in late 1950.

• He designed the temporary exhibition building for the Delhi Durbar of 1903.
• Sir William Emerson who was selected by Lord Curzon to design an edifice to commemorate Queen Victorias reign. Emerson chose Esch as his assistant to oversee the project and liaison with him in London. He became the Superintendent Architect and made major contributions to the design of the building.
• He had won a competition to design the Bengal Club building at Chowringhee and the Bengal-Nagpur Railway head office building at Garden Reach.
• In 1914 Esch was retained by Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad to help redevelop the city after serious damages due to floods. He designed numerous public buildings including

• the Kachiguda railway station(1914)
• The High Court(1916)
• The City College(1917–20)
• The Osmania General Hospital(1918–21)