Bhowanipore

Bhowanipore or Bhabanipur (Bengali: ভবানীপুর) is the oldest locality of South Kolkata.It is located just south of the Lower Circular Road (now A.J.C. Bose Road). It is the second largest locality in South Kolkata after Ballygunge. The locality has its boundary touching the AJC Bose Road, Maidan, Victoria Memorial and consists of well-known and posh localities like Elgin Road, Gokhale Road, Woodburn Park, Bakulbagan Road, Harish Mukherjee Road, Beltala Road, Townshend Road and parts of Chakraberia and Lansdowne. The locality has an illustrious past and abounds with stories of great men and women who lived here, although in the recent years it has lost much of its glory to Ballygunge, which has gone ahead in terms of good roads, posh locales, and modern day developments.

History

Bhowanipore is perhaps the first 'posh' south Kolkata neighbourhood. In the early 19th century, it was just a small village on the southern outskirts of the city of Calcutta. By the early 1850s it developed into a favourable home to many immigrants into the city from the countryside of East Bengal. These immigrants were very literate and prosperous and just wanted to settle outside the more famous localities of northern Kolkata.