Lal Dighi

square / civic centreThe city's nervous system. Everything is heard here first.

Description

The central square of White Town, built around a large rectangular masonry tank that has supplied the settlement with drinking water since before the Company had a fort worth the name. The Writers Building fills one side. The post office, the auction rooms and the public notice boards are here.

News enters Calcutta here and leaves here. A thing posted at Lal Dighi in the morning is discussed in Chowringhee drawing rooms by evening and in the bazaar by dark.

Notable Features

• Public notices are posted here, including Company proclamations, sale advertisements and shipping intelligence.
• The auction rooms. Estates of the deceased are disposed of constantly, because Europeans die here constantly.
• The tank itself. Steps down on all four sides, and the water used by everyone for everything.

The Senses

• Smell. Standing water, hot stone, horse, and paper glue off the notice boards.
• Sound. Palanquin bearers calling, auctioneers through open windows, and the particular hum of a place where everyone is exchanging information.
• Colour. White stucco all round, a flat green rectangle of water in the middle, and red-brown dust over everything not recently rained on.

Connections

• Writers Building
• Government House nearby
• The Strand west
• Chitpur Road runs north from here

In Play

Chapter 4, Session 11 (11 October 1814) — a waypoint, mentioned in passing. The square came up twice: as the carriage-journey waypoint before the party entered the narrower lanes of Blacktown on the way to Sutanuti, and as the area the Writers Building sits on the north side of, where Freddy’s audit took place. See By Command of His Excellency.

Appearances