TMC MP take foreigners on a tour of houses with art deco architecture

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar recently took a group of foreigners on a guided tour to witness the Art Deco Architecture of south Kolkata.

Sircar was requested by ICOMOS to suggest a guide for taking the foreigners’ group on a walk along the streets of south Kolkata and explain the characteristics of this architecture of middle-class houses built after the Second World War. Sircar ‘s love for art prompted him to take the responsibility upon himself.

Art Deco Architecture in Kolkata applies for small, private residential buildings. During the 1930s and 1940s, many middle-class families started building small two and three-storied houses on 2000 to 3000 sqft plots with sharp rectangular sides and roundish verandas and rooms. Rashbehari Avenue, Purna Das Road, Southern Avenue, Lake Road, Lake View Road, Hindustan Road, Dover Lane and its adjacent areas have a good number of such houses with such architecture.

“It is only Kolkata that has so many family-level residential buildings — built after the Second World War— when Art Deco was given up by the rest of the world,” Sircar wrote in a Facebook post.

Architects like Arjun Ray took this form from grand movie halls to the ‘Jahaj Baris’ (ship-shaped buildings) of Elgin Road and Southern Avenue and helped design the grand Art Deco residences of the super-rich in Alipore. Such architecture in the city began during WW2 by designing iconic cinema halls like Metro, Regal, New Empire, Elite, and Roxy that became the ultimate in sophistication. It is an influential visual arts design style that first appeared in France around the First World War and took many cities of America and Europe by storm in the 1920 to 1940 period.

“The foreign group was thrilled and some asked me if I was a professional guide,“ Sircar’s post read.