College Street Coffee House
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College Street Coffee House or Indian Coffee House is a
cafe A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...
located opposite the Presidency University in
College Street College Street may refer to: *College Street (Kolkata) *College Street (Toronto) * College Street (Sydney) *College Street (York) College Green is an open space in the city centre of York, England. History The green lies within the historic pr ...
, the most famous of
Indian Coffee House Indian Coffee House is a restaurant chain in India, run by a series of worker co-operative societies. It has strong presence across India with nearly 400 coffee houses. It has been a hub for Communist and Socialist movements for generations. Th ...
branches in
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
. It has been for a long time a regular hang out and a renowned meeting place (adda) for intellectuals and students (and ex-students) of the Presidency College,
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
, and other institutions in College Street. It has played an important part in Calcutta's (Kolkata) cultural history and known as the hub of intellectual debates.


History

The history of the Coffee House at College Street can be traced to Albert Hall, which was founded in April 1876. This Albert Hall was the primary residence of
Ramkamal Sen Ramkamal Sen (1783–1844) was the Diwan of the Treasury, Treasurer of the Bank of Bengal and Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. Childhood Born at Garifa, Naihati town in North 24 pargana district. on the banks of the Hooghly River in ...
, Treasurer of the Bank of Bengal and Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, in the early 19th century. Later, the Coffee Board decided to start a coffee joint from the Albert Hall in 1942. Notable citizens were frequent visitors to the place. In 1947, the Central Government changed the name of the place to "Coffee House". The place became a meeting place for the poets, artistes, literati and people from the world of art and culture. In 1958, the management decided to shut down the Coffee House, but it was re-opened the same year, after professors of Presidency College and Calcutta University rushed off a special petition to the government, to save the heritage place. In 2006, a huge financial crunch kept the co-operative society from undertaking renovation of the coffee house. Though a few companies such as
Asian Paints Asian Paints Ltd is an Indian multinational paint company, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company is engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling and distribution of paints, coatings, products related to home décor, bat ...
approached the society with offers to renovate the restaurant, the offers were refused due to clash of norms and conditions. During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the house was closed for 103 days and resumed its normal operation on 2nd of July 2020.


Famous patrons

The prestige of the Coffee House increased with regular visitors such as
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...
,
Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...
, Mrinal Sen and Aparna Sen. The Coffee House is of historical significance for being the rendezvous of innumerable versatile people, from its inception to date. Scholars, editors, artists and writers like
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembe ...
,
Narayan Gangopadhyay Narayan Gangopadhyay (4 February 1918 – 8 November 1970), also known as Narayan Ganguly, was an Indian novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer, and one of the leading writers of modern Bengali literature. He introduced the endearing ...
,
Sunil Gangopadhyay Sunil Gangopadhyay or Sunil Ganguly (7 September 1934 – 23 October 2012) was an Indian poet, historian and novelist in the Bengali language based in the city of Kolkata. He is a former Sheriff of Calcutta. Gangopadhyay obtained his ma ...
, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay,
Samaresh Majumdar Samares Mazumdar ( bn, সমরেশ মজুমদার, born 10 March 1944) is an Indian Bengali writer from West Bengal, India. He is best known for his Animesh series of novels, the second of which (''Kalbela'') won the Sahitya Akademi ...
, Subhas Mukhopadhyay,
Shakti Chattopadhyay Shakti Chattopadhyay (25 November 1933 – 23 March 1995) was an Indian poet and writer who wrote in Bengali. He is known for his realistic depictions of rural life. He was a green poet, many of his poems raised the issue of nature in crisis. T ...
, Craig Jamieson,
Sukhamoy Chakraborty Sukhamoy Chakravarty (26 July 1934 – 22 August 1990) was an Indian economist who, along with Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, was a key architect of the Five-Year plans of India. He attended Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta and Presiden ...
, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Barun De and
Sumit Sarkar Sumit Sarkar (born 1939) is an Indian historian of modern India. He is the author of ''Swadeshi Movement''. Early life, education and career He was born to Susobhan Sarkar. His maternal uncle was Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. He completed h ...
Shaiq Ahmed, Asif Shamim, Kavya Srivastava, Ayaan Tauquir. have been just a few among the patrons of the restaurant. In the early sixties of 20th century the coffee house became the intellectual battleground of the famous
Hungry generation The Hungry Generation ( bn, হাংরি জেনারেশান) was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the Hungryalist quartet, ''i.e.'' Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Royc ...
literary and cultural movement; the iconic poets Malay Roy Choudhury,
Samir Roychoudhury Samir Roychowdhury (Bengali: সমীর রায়চৌধুরী) (1 November 1933 – 22 June 2016), one of the founding fathers of the Hungry Generation (also known as Hungryalism or Hungrealism (1961–1965)), was born at Panihati, ...
brother duo who pioneered the movement were arrested and prosecuted. Several literary magazines owe their origin to the inspiration from the adda sessions at this coffee house. Though popularly known as College Street Coffee house, this branch is actually on Bankim Chatterjee Street. The coffee house is famous for its '' adda'' sessions, and as the breeding place of several political and cultural personalities and movements. Many people come here just for the sake of adda and just being a part of the long talking sessions. Several talented and illustrious persons from different streams have been thronging this renowned adda for a long time.


In popular culture

The Coffee House has been memorialized in a famous song sung by
Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (May 1, 1919 − October 24, 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an internationally acclaimed and celebrated Indian playback singer, music director, and a musician. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhen ...
titled ''Coffee House'er shei adda'ta aaj aar nei'' (That Coffee House adda is long gone now). Also modern singer Nachiketa Chakraborty's popular song 'Cofee House' 'Aj bochor dosh por dirghoswas kore bhor' is also made on the memories of golden past moments in college street cofee house .(It has preserved the heritage of the famous Coffee House through the ages. Films like ''
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy ''Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!'' is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language mystery action thriller film directed by Dibakar Banerjee, and produced by Banerjee and Aditya Chopra. The story is based on the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi created by the B ...
'' have been shot here.


References

{{Kolkata topics Culture of Kolkata Coffeehouses and cafés in India