St. Paul’s Cathedral is a Church of North India (CNI) cathedral of Anglican background in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, noted for its Gothic architecture and dedicated to Paul the Apostle. It is the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta. It is said to be the largest church in Kolkata and the first Anglican cathedral in Asia.

The cathedral was built to replace St. John’s Church, which had become too small for Calcutta’s growing European community; by 1810 there were 4,000 British men and 300 British women in Bengal. Bishop Middleton suggested as a site for the new cathedral the part of the city now known as “Fives Court”. In 1762 the area had been described as a forest so wild that it harbored tigers and at first it was regarded as “too far south” to serve as a location for the cathedral

On 8 October 1839, construction was initiated by laying the cornerstone. The cathedral was completed after eight years and consecrated on 8 October 1847. The consecration ceremony, to mark which Queen Victoria had sent “ten pieces of silver-gilt plate” for the cathedral, was largely attended by Europeans and local people. The cathedral was built in Gothic revival style, but with modern construction elements, including an iron framework. It was built with a chancel, a sanctuary, chapels and a 201 feet (61 m) tall spire; the cost of construction of the edifice was then Rs. 4,35,669. The cathedral can accommodate 800 to 1,000 people. modelling the tower and spire on Norwich Cathedral.

In the 1897 earthquake the cathedral suffered damage and was refurbished. In the subsequent massive earthquake of 1934, when Calcutta was devastated, the cathedral’s steeple tower collapsed. It was reconstructed to a revised design. Following the 1934 Calcutta earthquake, the tower was rebuilt along the lines of the central Bell Harry tower of Canterbury Cathedral. On its completion, St. Paul’s replaced St. John’s Church as the cathedral

The Imperial Gazetteer defined the architectural design of the cathedral as “Indo-Gothic”, to mean a Gothic architectural style built to meet the climatic conditions of India. It was also called a “spurious gothic adapted to the exigencies of the Indian climate.” The cathedral’s design, otherwise known as Gothic Revival style, includes three stained-glass windows and two frescoes in the Florentine Renaissance style; the West Window was created by Morris & Co. to a design by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The nave of the cathedral is very long at 247 feet (75 m), and its width is 81 feet (25 m). The nave is fitted with well-crafted wooden pews and chairs. The central spire rises to a height of 201 feet (61 m), and the tower on which it stands is square in shape and was patterned on the lines of the 12th-century Canterbury Cathedral, England. The tower was fitted with five clocks, each of which weighed about three tons. The stained-glass windows on the western side were the creation of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a pre-Raphaelite master, which were fitted in half-sunk arches; these were designed in 1880 in memory of Lord Mayo who was assassinated in the Andaman Islands.

When completed in 1847, the cathedral as a whole was compared to Norwich Cathedral in England. The East window, which had original stained glass, was destroyed by a cyclone in 1964. It was replaced with a new one in 1968. The roof of the cathedral (it was the largest span when built) is in the shape of a shallow curve arching over iron trusses decorated with Gothic tracery. The nave of the cathedral is built spaciously without any aisles on its flanks.The materials used in the construction of the cathedral consisted of special bricks, light in weight and with good compression strength. The ashlars used were of Chunar stone. The external and internal surfaces of the cathedral were plastered with fine chunam (lime plaster) in the form of stucco.

The cathedral’s interior has a display of many art forms and memorabilia. There is an episcopal throne on the southern flank of the altar and a reredos or decorative wall on its liturgical east end dated to 1879; it has carvings of episodes related to the life of St. Paul, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Flight into Egypt, all the work of Sir Arthur Blomfield. The parish hall within the premises of the cathedral is the venue for holding social functions.The eastern wall in the cathedral has paintings of the life of St. Paul, painted by Blomfield in 1886.

The cathedral complex also has a library, situated over the western porch, to dimensions of 61 by 22 feet (19 m × 7 m) with a height of 35 feet (11 m). It was built at the initiative of Bishop Wilson, who donated 8,000 of his books and manuscripts. Further donations of books to the library were from W. Gordon and Rev. J. Nath of the University of Oxford and the Calcutta Bible Society.

Entry to the cathedral is from the north through a large gate made of wrought iron called the Sir William Prentice Memorial Gate, which is named after Sir William Prentice, who was a member of cathedral’s congregation for many years. The cathedral is surrounded by a well-tended gardens. In 1847, 63 species of trees had been planted in this garden.