Park Street Graveyard

Location: Park Street .

Time to Visit: Open 24 hours.

Preferred Timings:Morning between 8 A.M. - 11.30 P.M. and evening between 3 P.M. - 5 P.M.

Admission Fee: Nil.

How to Reach:Local buses, minibuses and metered taxis are readily available from various parts of the city. A great option is the highly efficient underground metro rail, which has a station at Park Street.

Photography / Video charges:Nil.

Nearest Railway Station: Howrah.

Nearest Metro Station: Park Street.

Nearest Functional Metro Station: Park Street.

Nearest International Airport: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Intrnational Airport.

Time required for sightseeing: About 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Kolkata, being the capital of British East India Company and the steady stream of British people pouring into this capital city of British India meant that an exclusive cemetery or crematorium for the burial of British citizens had to be constructed. Accordingly, the British administration choose the exclusive and posh Park Street area for burial of British subjects.

The world is full of contrast and none can be more contrasting then the fact that an exclusive graveyard or burial ground being built in one of the posh localities of a city of stupendous dimension. It is like building a graveyard at the center Piccadilly Square. However, what probably weighed upon the British administrators in building the graveyard at Park Street was the element of exclusivity that came with the street.

Anyway, leaving aside speculations, one must admit that the Park Street Graveyard happens to be the last resting place of the crème de la crème of British colonial society and is regarded by historians as one of the finest colonial cemeteries anywhere in the world. The very fact that it has survived so long is in itself a mystery.
As one passes through the impressive gate of the cemetery, the amazing world of colonial grave architecture unfolds before your eyes. A fascinating world of pyramids, pagodas, pavilions, obelisks and urns can be seen beneath which the movers and shakers of Raj era Kolkata lie in eternal slumber.

As you stroll around this mysterious graveyard, you will be touched by the manner in which the monumental grave memorials are engraved. As you stand beside the intricately decorated graveyards of people of the stature of Richmond Thackery, Col Akilis, William James and our own Michael Madhusudhan Dutta to name just a few, you feel your hairs standing on the edge.

The Park Street Graveyard is much preferred by Europeans, particularly the stiff upper lipped Britons who come to pay homage to their forefathers. Often, Britons who were buried at this cemetery do have their kith and kin in UK and it is not improbable to find a few misty eyed relatives who have come all the way from UK, silently offering their prayers to the departed soul.

For people with a passion for history, the Park Street graveyard is an open-air history book. All that the historian in you has to do is make a note of the inscriptions engraved on the graves and then try to interpret and analyze. Needless to say, you will know not only the individual's personality but also the socio-economic condition of the country when the concerned individual was alive.

A visit to Park Street Graveyard will also make you well versed on the European burial culture of those days. Trends like individualism and romanticism did creep in to the British burial culture from 1700, which are amply evident on the inscriptions engraved on the graves. The graveyard is like a window to transnational transfer of European customs in a non-European environment like Kolkata.

Perhaps it would not be out of place to mention that the Park Street Graveyard memorials are among the most valuable historical sources of material culture from the last few centuries.

Nearby Tourist Attractions

Maidan, Victoria Memorial, Esplanade, Birla Planetarium.