Howrah

settlement / west bankIndustrial, muddy, and on the wrong side of the water.

Description

The west bank of the Hooghly opposite Calcutta. Ferries, boatyards, ropewalks, brick kilns and lime works, and the landward end of the roads west toward Bombay and south toward the sea.

There is no bridge. Everything crosses by ferry, which means the west bank is administratively adjacent and practically half an hour away.

Downstream of the ferries lies the Company’s botanic garden at Shibpur.

Notable Features

• Boatyards and ropewalks. Country craft are built and repaired here, and Aratoon knows every yard on this bank.
• The brick kilns burn day and night and lay their smoke flat over the water in the mornings.
• The ferry is the only way across and it stops at dusk for anyone who does not pay well.

The Senses

• Smell. Wet clay, kiln smoke, tar, hemp, and the river at low tide.
• Sound. Adzes on timber, the kilns drawing, and the flat slap of ferry oars.
• Colour. Red raw brick, grey mud, and the smoke lying in a flat sheet over brown water at first light.

Connections

• The Hooghly River
• Calcutta Botanic Garden downstream
• The Strand opposite

Appearances