The Grand Hotel, now known as the Oberoi Grand, is situated in the heart of

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 ...

Chowringhee Road Chowringhee Road (also spelt ''Chourangi Road''), located in the Chowringhee neighbourhood of Kolkata, is the arterial road running from the eastern fringes of Esplanade southwards up to the crossing with Lower Circular Road (AJC Bose Roa ...

. It is an elegant building of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

era and is a famous building in Kolkata. The hotel is owned by Oberoi chain of hotels.

History

Street in front of the Grand Hotel, Calcutta - LIFE

The house was converted into a boarding house by Mrs. Annie Monk who later expanded her business to include Numbers 14, 15 and 17. 16 Chowringhee was occupied by a theatre owned and managed by

Arathoon Stephen Arathoon Stephen ( hy, Արաթուն սթիվեն; 1861 – 14 May 1927) was an Armenian hotelier and real estate developer based in India. Amongst other properties, he owned and developed the Kolkata institutions: the Empire Theatre and the Gran ...

, an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

n from

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is lo ...

. When, in 1911, the theatre burned down, Stephen bought out Mrs. Monk and, over time, redeveloped the site into what now makes up the modern hotel. Built in an extravagant neoclassical style, the hotel soon became a popular spot amongst the English population of Calcutta. It was known, in particular, for its annual New Year party that, along with iced champagne and expensive gifts, involved the release of twelve piglets in the ballroom. Anyone who caught a piglet, could keep it. In the 1930s, sometime after the death of Stephen, a typhoid epidemic in Calcutta resulted in the death of six people at the hotel. The drainage system at the hotel was suspected and it was closed in 1937. The property was leased by

Mohan Singh Oberoi Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi (15 August 1898 – 3 May 2002)Mohan Singh Oberoi< ...

who reopened the hotel in 1939 and was able to buy the property outright in 1943. The hotel got a major lift during World War II when about 4000 soldiers were billeted there, and would party regularly. Events like the U.S. Marines' Ball at the hotel remind visitors of such times.

Features

The hotel features a large white building covering an entire block, colonnaded verandahs and balconies on the upper floors, projecting portico for the entire length of the block supported on paired columns with Ionic capitals, and stucco ornamentation in the facade.

Awards

*Top Hotels in India Zagat Survey, Top International Hotels, Resorts and Spas 2005 *Best Business Hotel in Asia: Nominated International Business Asia and

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...

*Best Hotel in the Five Star Deluxe Category in Eastern India Department of Tourism,

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

Gallery

File:OberoiGrandHotelKolkataCourtyard gobeirne.jpg, The Interior Courtyard of Grand Hotel (Kolkata) File:First Floor Lounge - Oberoi Grand - Kolkata 2013-05-23 8235.JPG, First Floor Lounge of Grand Hotel (Kolkata) File:Ball Room - Oberoi Grand - Hotel - Kolkata 2014-05-23 4724-4726.TIF, Ball Room of Grand Hotel (Kolkata) File:Ball Room Lobby - Oberoi Grand - Kolkata 2013-05-23 8045.JPG, Ball Room Lobby of Grand Hotel (Kolkata)

References

External links

The Official site
Hotels in Kolkata The Oberoi Group {{India-hotel-stub