The Lord Sahib’s House: Sites of Power: Government Houses of Calcutta, 1690-1911

The Lord Sahib’s House: While the Government House in Chennai, more than 250 years old, is being demolished to facilitate the construction of a new Legislative Assembly complex, the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta — the Government House of yore where the Viceroy and Governor-General of India resided throughout the 19th Century — is going from strength to strength despite the signs of aging, which have become a part and parcel of the magnificent pile. The picture shows the south facade of the house from the west, facing the great expanse of the Maidan, with the dome which, incidentally, has been criticised through the years for not being in keeping with the scale of the house. The building was completed in 1803, being built without the permission of the East India Company’s Board of Directors by the then Governor-General, Lord Wellesley.