The New Market was completed on 1 January 1874. At that time, its gates were opened to the English people of the city. A wide area outside the market was reserved for the parking of horse-drawn carriages. British people from all over the country came to Calcutta to shop at exclusive retailers from England such as Ranken and Company (dressmakers), Cuthbertson and Harper (shoe-dealers) and R.W. Newman or Thacker Spink (famous stationers and booksellers).
Formerly known as Hog Market, this market is within walking distance of Esplanade Metro Station. Step out of Esplanade Metro Station and you will see street shops lined up all around. Just follow the lines and in no time you will be able to see the picture of the busy New Market. From shopping malls to street shops to classy restaurants to street food stalls, the market has everything you need.
Best places to eat in New Market
If you are in New Market, you cannot miss Nahoum & Sons. Established in 1902, this shop is the city's go-to. You can even taste Phuchka, Jhalmuri, Ghugni, Chole Bhature, Alu Chaat, Juice and many more here. Among the restaurants inside the market, you can eat Kolkata's most famous roll at Nizam's Restaurant.
To taste the best biryani in the city, you can eat biryani from Aminia. There are many other famous restaurants here like The Scoop, Jimmy's Restaurant & Bar, Ban Thai, Aheli and many more.
What is available in New Market?
You can find everything from shoe shops to meat shops at a fair price in New Market. You can find shoes, clothes, sarees, toys, food, home decor items, spices, real and fake jewelry here. Winter clothes in the summer and summer clothes in the winter, you can find everything you want in this ancient market. Things are sold on the sidewalks in parallel with the stalls inside the market. The market is open from 10 am to 8 pm.
Kalimpong cheese and Bandel cheese are local cheeses available only in New Market. Kalimpong cheese comes from Kalimpong , a tourist destination in North Bengal , and can be eaten raw or in salads.
Bandel cheese is an Asian cheese that originated in a former Portuguese colony in eastern India . It is a native unripened, salty soft cheese made in perforated containers. It is similar to Surati cheese but made from cow's milk.
History of New Market
When the British first came to Calcutta, they lived in the present-day B-Ba-Di Bagh area. That is why they bought vegetables, fish and meat at Lalbazar or Tereti Bazar, and clothes, food and other luxury items at the Chinese market. In those days, all the shopkeepers in the Chinese market were Bengalis and the customers were the Sahebs and Mems.
There was a slander against the Bengali shopkeepers in the Chinese market; they used to cheat the Sahebs and Mems. At least, William Hickey, an attorney of the Supreme Court who lived in Calcutta in the late eighteenth century, said this in his memoirs. It is worth mentioning here that the father of Ram Gopal Ghosh, one of the 'Young Bengal' students of Derozio in the nineteenth century and a famous orator, also had a book shop in the Chinese market.
Then when the Sahebs started living in the areas of Kasaitola, Dharmatala and Chowrangi, they established three markets, Sherbaran Bazar, Chowrangi Bazar and Chandni Chowk. Sherbaran Bazar was located where the 'Statesman' office is located today. And Chowrangi Bazar was located at the junction of Chowrangi and Dharmatala Streets.
Chowrangi Bazar was the largest market. After this market was handed over to the auction, it was renamed 'Dharmatala Bazar'. From the advertisement given by the auctioneer Tullow and Company for the sale of the market on 18 April 1799, we learn that the area of the land on which the market was situated was nine bighas.
There were 207 brick shops, 143 arched shops and 36 very large mud warehouses in that market. The advertisement stated that the market's boundaries were "bounded by General Shibbert's house on the east, by the Dhurrumtolah Road to the north, by the Chowringhee Road to the West, and by the Jaun Bazar Road to the south."
In 1887, Jadulal Mallick of Pathuriaghata bought this market!
Sherbaran Bazar and Dharmatala Bazar have disappeared. But Chandni Chowk is still alive. When the gentlemen settled in the Chowringhee area of Kolkata, the capital of all India, they used to buy their goods either in Dharmatala Bazar or Chandni Chowk. But the gentlemen and ladies of the elite community used to buy their goods from the famous shops of Kolkata.
These shops sold either clothes, food and shoes, or stationery, luxury goods and books. Rankin and Company made clothes, Cuthbertson and Harper made shoes, Trail and Company sold stationery, and W. Newman and Thacker Spink's shops sold stationery and books.
Apart from that, there were two or three department stores in Kolkata, which was equivalent to the market. The largest department store was Whiteway Ladle's. As large as the store was in size, its merchandise was also diverse. Anything could be bought here. In addition to Whiteway Ladle, there were three other department stores. They were Hall & Anderson, Army & Navy Stores, and Francis Harrison & Haddaway's.
The Sahibs and Mems, along with the natives, found it difficult to buy goods from the Dharmatala market and Chandni Chowk. The shopkeepers not only cheated on the weight but also on the price. Therefore, in 1863, the Civilian Sahibs applied to the Calcutta Corporation for the establishment of a market.
In 1871, a special committee was set up in response to this application. The committee immediately recommended the establishment of a market for the Sahibs and Mems. 25 bighas of land were purchased at the junction of Leosey Street and Bartram Street in Chowringhee, an elite village in Calcutta, for two lakh eighteen thousand rupees.
The contractor, Burn and Company, immediately started the construction of the market. The construction of the market was completed by 1873 at a cost of six lakh sixty five thousand nine hundred fifty rupees. The market was officially opened on January 1, 1874. Some papers state that the market was opened in September, which is completely wrong.
Another mistake is that the market was initially named Hog Market, and later, in the post-independence era, it was named 'New Market'. Since it was a new market, it was named 'New Market' from the beginning. This is the name that people of that time and time are more familiar with.
It was only on December 2, 1903, that it was named 'Sir Stuart Hog Market', or Hog Market for short. Sir Stuart Hog was the Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation until November 12, 1866. Since the market was built during his tenure and due to his efforts, after his retirement, the market was named 'Sir Stuart Hog Market' in his honor. A bromide portrait of Sir Stuart Hogg hangs in the Portrait Gallery of the Calcutta Corporation.
New Market was the first municipal market in Kolkata. After that, the Kolkata Corporation established several more markets. Namely, Sir Charles Allen Market in 1903, College Street Market in 1917, Lake Road Market in 1903, Gariahat Road Market in 1938, Park Circus Market in 1940, New Alipore Market in 1963 and Maniktala Market in 1972.
But what would happen if so many corporation markets were established? None of them could achieve the respect, dignity and glory of New Market. It is worth mentioning that the corporation used to make a profit from these markets till 1968-69, but since then it has been continuously losing money.
New Market occupies a prominent place in architecture. It was designed by the then architect of the East India Railway Company, R. Byne. For this he received a prize of one thousand rupees. And the original structure was built by Burn and Company. Later it underwent many expansions. A very large expansion took place in 1909, when the eastern block was built at a cost of five lakhs seventy-seven thousand nine hundred and forty-seven rupees. The northern extension took place immediately before the Second World War.
Being the market for the gentlemen and ladies of the capital, New Market had a special status. It's not that Bengalis didn't go to New Market to buy things. But they were barristers who had returned from England or Bengalis of that class. Today, the gentlemen have left this country, but New Market has not lost its ancient tradition. Now, housewives of many houses buy clothes from New Market and proudly tell their neighbors—'This was bought from New Market!'
There is nothing that cannot be found in New Market! On the one hand, you can find everything from vegetables to fish and meat. On the other hand, you can find everything from bread, cakes, fruits, nuts to clothes, shoes, books, newspapers, stationery and various luxury items to diamonds and precious ornaments.
Not only that, if you want to weigh yourself or test your strength, there is also a facility in New Market. Earlier, Bengali girls used to go to New Market, but not to buy things. After visiting the zoo and museum in Kalighat, they would enter New Market to see the splendor of the market. That means, New Market was a place to see in Kolkata.
But today it is a different scene. Today, girls go to New Market to buy sarees, blouses, boys' and girls' clothes and shoes and various luxury items. Those who go to buy feel a sense of pride in themselves. The thing they buy for two hundred taka at the New Market might be fifty taka cheaper at a shop outside the market, but they won't sacrifice the happiness of their self-respect for that fifty taka.
In the past, gentlemen and ladies, the white palanquins and the sailors of the white ships, chatting in New Market.
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