A Walk Through New Market, Kolkata/Calcutta

Solatopee

Hiya,

I wonder if there is any one who can take me on a trip into time through the New Market, Kolkata around about 1948/50.

I'm trying to recollect what it was like at that time and what sort of shops were available then. If we could start from the Main Entrance on Lindsey Street, please.

I remember a few like the line of Flower Stalls, Jewellers, shoe shops, Magnolia's Ice Cream Parlour, Nahoom's Cake Shop, D'Gama's Confectionery. Then there were shops selling bread, biscuits, cheese, butter etc. There were fruit & vegetable shops. I can remember my Mother going to purchase Christmas Cake ingredients.

Any possibilities if any one can indicate were about they were located inside the New Market and if they can add a few more well known shops or locations there. Does anyone remember The American Ice Cream shops.

Thanks for your Help.

Solatopee

wonderwomanusa

Nahoum's is still there, however, I cannot describe its location to you; I only know to enter on Lindsay Street, and kind of zig-zag to to the right to find it.

unclelach

I cannot answer Solatopee's questions as my one visit to New Market was only in March last year.

I was though struck by nostalgia when I heard the chimes of the tower clock at New Market. There was and is an identical set of chimes in the post office clock at Bendigo, Australia, which I first heard as a small boy in 1948/50. Both clocks were installed I think in the late 1800's.

Solatopee might see some New Market images of interest in Youtube. A search just now found several videoclips taken in and around New Market.

Solatopee

wonderwomanusa,

Thanks for your reply. We left Kolkata/Calcutta about 40 years ago and I'm trying to make a record for my family so that my kids & grand kids will have an idea of our life then. The New Market was a well known shopping centre then. Today, it has all changed.

Solatopee

Solatopee

unclelach.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I too can remember the New Market/Hogg Market Clock Tower chime. Opposite the Tower was Keventers' Milk Dairy on Lindsey Street. As kids we loved their milk drink.

Thanks for all the info.

Solatopee

Khak

there is one comparatively cheap resturant cum bar called Magnolia in Park Street......

__________________
~Khak~

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

Solatopee

Khak,

Can you please remove your Bug from my computer :-))))) LOL

Thanks Khak for the info. Yes, I remember that, we used to visit there as kids.

Solatopee

SSG

Solatopee,

D'Gama's has gone. The son moved to Australia. Nahum's is still there, though they want to move to Israel. Keventer's is gone. There are a couple of shoe shops there. Most of the Chinese shoe shops are gone. Or are Indian owned and sad.

The centre of the market still lights up at Christmas, but there are no more carols over loudspeakers. The fruit, veggie and meat ranges still exist. The cloth and embroidery shops at the back of the market burned down in the fire and are now accomodated in a truly hideous building behind the market.

The pork shops or piggeries as they were called are all gone. Only one of the old type remains on Corporation Street.

Cheers!

ycl1688

there was a great eastern sales counter along dgama, a clerk
who used to give me credit for buying his vegetable
patties on my way back from school, what a trust he
had in me. i could repay him whenever i feel like

RPG

You forgot to mention the dry-fruits and nuts places. I believe they were partly in the section that burned down, but a few of them are still there.

Nahoum's is easy to find; from the Lindsay St entrance, go to the center (where the cannon is) and then take the path going to the right. Nahoum's will be on your right. You still occasionally see members of the Jewish family that owns it, sitting at a desk behind the counter, and I've seen challah bread for sale there.

Only a few of the porters with the wide/flat baskets are still left, but if you are unlucky one of them will see you and harass you mercilessly.

Outside the Lindsay St entrance, the whole area (where there used to be parking in the middle of the road) has been turned into a characterless pedestrian plaza with parking below ground.

Most of the movie theaters in the area are still there, but the days when they only showed English fillums are long gone. But there is now a Cafe Coffee Day (expensive coffee) and an internet shop on the ground floor level of the New Empire. The fruit juice places on the other side of the street are still there.

RPG

WW2 era photo; you will recognize the area. Note the military trucks in the parking area subsequently (and until recently) used for two lines of parked cars.

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