Battle for Kolkata's Heritage: The Apcar Bungalow and the erosion of City's legacy

Something is not quite right at 14 Kyd Street (now Dr Md Ishaque Road), in Kolkata. A new boundary wall with an iron gate has suddenly manifested around the property, on which stands a slightly derelict, beautiful but vacant British-era bungalow that belonged to one of Kolkata’s most prominent Armenian families. Security guards have been posted to keep curious onlookers at bay while neighbours attempting to photograph the goings-on are actively discouraged by them. These are the tell-tale signs of a land grab in action, a real estate developer probably taking hold of the property. But this once-magnificent, sprawling bungalow is more than mere prime real estate. It was the homestead of the junior branch of the Apcars, an Armenian Christian family that was one of Kolkata’s foremost business families during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Apcar family was originally from New Julfa in Isfahan (Central Iran), and they initially arrived in Mumbai in the early 19th century. In 1830, a branch of this family set down roots in the then-British settlement of Kolkata and, over time, shot to prominence in commerce and industry. The Apcar family owned jute mills, and had real-estate businesses, insurance businesses, brokerages, money lending/business financing businesses, shipping lines, and coal mining and distribution businesses in Raniganj and Asansol. It was due to the coal mining activities of Apcar & Company that Asansol rapidly developed into an industrial and mining town. The family was actively associated with the Bengal Chambers too. Seth Apcar (1819 – 1885) was the first Armenian Sheriff of Kolkata. Some family members were involved in the practice of law, while others became legislators. The Apcars also made large donations to the Armenian College, currently on Mirza Ghalib Street.

The Apcar family has left an enduring legacy for Kolkata, a precious piece of the mosaic that makes up this city’s storied history. And yet we are, in all probability, allowing a slice of our city’s tangible heritage to be erased, by letting land sharks collude with the custodians of the Apcar properties, purely for commercial gain.

Annette Apcar was the last surviving member of the family to reside in the 14 Kyd Street bungalow. A stickler for rules, she paid the property tax on the premises until she died in 2015. The tax has not been paid since.

A quick online search on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) portal provides a detailed description of the ownership of the property (Assessee No. 10631500869, KMC Ward no - 63, attached). The records indicate that the property is registered in the names of G J ( Gregory John) Apcar and Annie Apcar, trustees to the estate of family patriarch C J Avetoom. Upon their death, Annette Apcar, their only daughter, who passed away in 2015 and is buried in the Armenian Cemetery in the city, used to reside on the premises.

The question is: who would try to usurp the Apcar property?

Residents of Kolkata consider their city to be a citadel of culture. The pinnacle of literature, cinema, theatre, other applied and performing arts, and epicurean delights. It has also been a nursery of liberal and forward-thinking political discourses. Sadly, we tend to forget that our built heritage is also a valuable part of our city’s socio-cultural fabric. Opportunistic real-estate developers and city officials use various legal loopholes to accomplish the destruction of our built heritage while most of us look the other way. But funnily, every year, we celebrate World Heritage Day in the city with fanfare on 18 April.

Political roots of our apathy

This disregard for our built heritage goes back a long way. Consider this. Soon after Independence, in 1960, we lost the historical and majestic Senate building of Kolkata University, dating to 1872. It was where Rabindranath Tagore delivered, for the first time, the annual convocation speech of the university in Bengali, in 1937. Around the same time, we also lost the first hotel of the East – The Spence’s Hotel. Established well before the Great Eastern Hotel, of which so much has been said and written, and we lost the Spence’s Hotel to utter indifference. Along with it, we also lost memories of our maritime and social history of 19th and early 20th century Kolkata.

Thereafter, the political compulsion to alter the course of the city’s history forced the United Front coalition government to rename the 1828-built Ochterlony Monument as ‘Shaheed Minar’ in 1969, to give it a local flavour. It was no more than a cosmetic move. It doesn’t seem to have dawned on the political class in West Bengal that by sending out a clarion call, even now, to their supporters to congregate at the ‘Brigade Parade’ ground surrounding the Shaheed Minar, they are ironically invoking the same colonial-era memories of British military brigades parading there that they otherwise want to eradicate. We simply cannot deny the strong occidental influence on Kolkata since the city’s early days. And, yet, we keep trying to wish it away.

Kolkata versus Mumbai

Among our more recent follies is the recent overnight demolition of the 85-year-old Elite cinema on Kolkata’s S N Banerjee Road. We failed to preserve even the façade and outer shell of this cinema hall, whereas, in Mumbai, the recent restoration of Eros cinema, another British-era institution, shows just how much we can achieve if we possess the will. If one argues that single-screens like Elite cinema are no longer profitable, well, then, the 90-year-old Art Deco Eros cinema in Mumbai too was a single-screen. It was recently reopened, retaining its single-screen alongside additional commercial space. Its interior was completely remodelled, while its façade has been impeccably preserved.

Mumbai scored again, earlier, with the meticulous restoration of its century-old Royal Opera House. Returned to its former glory, the institution has been fully functional ever since it was reopened some years ago. On the other hand, Kolkata’s Globe Cinema, the city’s ‘Opera House’ from an even earlier period, situated opposite the iconic New Market, was converted mainly into a shopping complex. Established in 1827, the 'Globe Cinema' was previously known as the ‘Old Opera House’. In 1906, it was converted into a single-screen movie theatre and named ‘Globe Cinema’. It was such an iconic institution and, yet, without batting an eyelid, we so wilfully destroyed its legacy.

Every day, people all over the world celebrate their heritage – cultural, social, historical, and built. These parts of our heritage embody who we are and where we come from. They also espouse the journey we, as a community, took to get where we are currently. The history and culture of a community, a city or a country cannot be wiped out simply because we do not like it at the present moment. Still, this notion of shared history has come under attack time and again. The Apcar property, situated ironically near the Indian Museum and a stone’s throw from the MLA Hostel, is no exception.

Local gems too are bits of our heritage

Allow me to clarify that I am not discussing world heritage sites or even sites and properties that fall into the Grade I and Grade II categories, as these have adequate legal, financial, and intellectual protection. I am referring to sites and properties that fall outside the purview of the three above-mentioned categories but are still important enough to be protected and preserved. This includes properties where the owners are deceased, or the properties have been bequeathed to foundations, charities, and associations for specific purposes and public good.

In 1997, a West Bengal government expert committee was set up to identify heritage structures in Kolkata. A year later, the committee submitted its list to the state government, which forwarded it to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), so that the latter could take the necessary steps for their preservation and conservation, under the KMC (Amendment) Act, 1980.

In 2009, the list was sharpened and revised, and the properties were graded, with talk of a Grade III heritage category being set up. Fifteen years later, we are still awaiting this list to be made public, one that in all probability would cover properties like the Apcars’.

In the end

Disinterest such as this allows developers to usurp vulnerable heritage properties. Here’s another example of what they can get away with in the absence of adequate laws. The arched gate of the 5 Russell Street building, another heritage property not far from the Apcars’, was partially demolished on the night of August 25-26, 2001, as it provided evidence of the building’s antiquity. The building had a long and well-documented history and once served as the residence of the city’s bishops. It was also one of the few examples of colonial architecture dating to the 18th and 19th centuries in Kolkata.

English Civil Servant James Pattle (ancestor of historian and writer William Dalrymple) bought it from ‘Woodoy Chand Dutt’, son of ‘Russick Lall Dutt’, on May 14, 1824, for a sum of rupees one lakh, as one of his residences. Thereafter, he leased it to the East India Company as the Episcopal Residence. Until the consecration of the new cathedral named after St Paul in the Maidan area, it was home to five bishops. In 1916, the property was bequeathed to the YMCA, which allegedly colluded with a builder to demolish the property. It was eventually saved on the intervention of the Kolkata High Court due to a Public Interest Litigation filed by G M Kapur, state convener of INTACH.

A heritage list alone cannot save these structures, nor can public-spirited individuals, no matter how well-meaning. To save Kolkata’s built heritage, it would require the government to be seriously committed to the preservation of our city’s past. But wouldn’t that be like asking for the moon?

The writer is a Reputation Strategist, a Columnist, and a Kolkata History enthusiast. Views expressed are personal