Over the past seven decades, a marshy lowland inhabited by refugees gradually transformed into one of the most sought after locales on the north-eastern fringe of Kolkata. Lake Town evolved through a constant mix of gentrification, cultural shifts and new developments.
In the book ‘British Dumdum’, Moumita Saha chronicled an 1860 order from Fort William mentioning the area “Patty Pukur” (now Patipukur). In 1870, the then Viceroy of India came out with a resolution for financial decentralisation for the development of local self-govt institutions, and several municipal bodies were formed. One of them was the South Dumdum Municipality, with an area of eight square kilometres. The municipal limit of the area stretched up to “Dakhin Dwar” or “Dakhindari”, encompassing present-day localities like Nagerbazar, Bangur, Lake Town and Sreebhumi. While present-day Bangur was part of the fort built by Zamindar Gourhari, the canal near “Dakhin Dwar” was used to dock boats carrying soldiers.
In his book, ‘Purono Patipukur O Tar Sanskriti’, Shibendu Shekhar Chakraborty narrated how the nondescript marshy lowland stretch in the late 1940s gradually grew into a settlement of colonies for refugees from Bangladesh. While the adjacent areas like Adyanath Pally, Tentultala, and SK Deb Road had some houses, this area lay vacant for decades before refugee colonies were set up.
The transformation started after the Partition of India and large-scale influx of people from Bangladesh. A section of them started to settle in the areas adjoining Patipukur along Jessore Road. This continued until 1950 when a company called ‘Rajkumar Pastain & Others’ got the job of filling the marshy land. It was named ‘Lady Preston Town’ before it was changed to the present-day ‘Lake Town’ sometime in the second half of the 1950s.
The gentrification process started around 1954, and higher-income people started to move into historically lower-income areas of Lake Town and Sreebhumi. To draw attention of prospective settlers, a cattle show was organised in the area in 1954. In next two decades, Lake Town was inhabited by middle-class Bengalis and white-collar govt employees.
“I was born here. In those days, Lake Town had one or two-storey homes. We had large grounds and huge lakes nearby, making it a wonderful locality to grow up in,” said Sunanda Biswas. A businessman by profession, Biswas is now settled in Hyderabad.
Lake Town and Sreebhumi developed into a planned area in the next few decades and developed their own identity as a cultural hub. In her article “Politics of Transformation in Twin Refugee Neighbourhoods of Kolkata”, Sounita Mukherjee, PhD researcher and teaching assistant with the University of California Davis, said the first theatre group came out of Jagrihi Sangha near Adyanath Pally. Thespian Ajitesh Bandopadhyay formed a new youth theatre club in the locality called the Yuva Sangha Club. “Group theatre was taken very seriously in this locality, so much so that one of the colonies, Natunpally, was commonly called ‘Theatre Bagan’, and people of all ages participated,” she wrote.
“One of the iconic landmarks of Lake Town was the Jaya Cinema Hall. It was one of two cinemas that had twin screens. Like Gem and Mini Gem in Entally, Lake Town had Jaya and Mini Jaya. People from the entire north Kolkata came to watch movies. We would often refer to our addresses as one near the movie hall,” recounted Baisakhi Mitra. The septuagenarian has witnessed the changing demography and landscape of the area.
As more people moved to Kolkata for work, the demand for affordable housing increased in the city and adjoining areas. It pushed developers to look for underdeveloped zones in Lake Town too. The first large real estate project in the area was Shyam Lake Garden. The neighbourhood increasingly became more attractive to higher-income residents due to its locational advantage. The boom in real estate started in the 1990s, and the demography in the area gradually took on a cosmopolitan identity.
“Trading communities from different parts of India started to settle here. High-rise housing projects and Condoville came up to cater to luxury living aspirations. Organised retail chains replaced traditional grocery shops. Traffic increased exponentially, and roads through the blocks were thrown open for heavy vehicles. The "morning adda" at tea stalls in front of the Jaya Cinema gradually shifted to Shrama's Tea and MBA Chai Wala," said Ranadhir Ghosh, a businessman.
The Kolkata Time Zone Tower a one-third rep-lica of the Big Ben in Westminster, London - was set up in 2015. "This soon became a photographers' delight and selfie zone. Within a year, this became the new identity for Lake Town," said Roshan Mitra, a resident. With colonial décor and intricate lighting arrangements, the 98-foot clock tower looks majestic at night on the Lake Town-VIP Road intersection.
According to Sounita Mukherjee, Durgapuja at Sreebhumi helped it to create an identity. Organisers came out with replicas of famous structures like Paris Opera house, London's Saint Paul's Cathedral, Gujarat's Akshardham temple, Sacré-Cœur of Paris' Montmartre and Burj Khalifa of the UAE. "For these neighbourhoods, what was a small social event earlier, transformed itself into large spectacular ones. Aspirations of the new generations have also changed over the years," she said.
Vikash Agarwal, a trader at Bangur, has been staying in the area for two decades. "In terms of looks, it can be compared to posh localities in the city now," he said. For the Lake Town area, locals felt it is crucial to strike a balance between development and preservation, ensuring that the neighbourhood remains vibrant, inclusive and true to its history.
