Places of Interest in Kolkata - Walks

Walks

• The College Street walk involves a walk down Kolkata's most academic street - with historical institutions like Presidency College, Calcutta Medical College, Bethune College, Scottish Church College, the University of Calcutta and India Coffee House. The sidewalks are overrun with pedestrians, and the streets with vehicles, but the ambiance of the street comes from literally hundreds of used book stores on either side of the street selling a potpourri of literature and textbooks. Operation Sunshine - Kolkata's drive to remove street hawkers, had a special clause ruling out hawkers on College Street. College Square at the heart of College Street, has a square pool. Bookstores of repute include Dasgupta's and those of publishing houses Chuckerverty, Chatterjee and Sons and Rupa & Co.. Putiram's Cabin is a much-loved snack and sweet shop on College Street.
• The Free School Street walk between Park Street and New Market involves a walk past Kolkata's best budget hotels in the Free School Street - Sudder Street area. The used book and record shops sport an eclectic collection due to trade with generations of budget travellers the world over. The street also has the house William Makepeace Thackeray was born in, the Calcutta Fire Services headquarters, and one of the best places to buy cold cuts is at Kalman's, a shop of Hungarian origin. Free School Street dining can be eclectic, with Shamiana - offering cheap Mughlai cuisine, Prince and Princess cheap Bengali cuisine, and Mocambo upscale continental dining, to name a few . Free School Street ( now called Mirza Ghalib Street) is Kolkata's answer to New York City's Hell's Kitchen, and is not particularly safe after dark.

• The Southern Avenue walk takes one past Kolkata's artificial lake and urban park - the Rabindra Sarobar, and numerous playgrounds. Early morning walks make for excellent people and dog watching as well as nature watching and cricket watching. At end of Southern Avenue lies Gol Park with some of the best sweet shops in Kolkata like Ganguram's and the used book store alley, and the shopping district of Gariahat.
• The Chowringhee Avenue walk between Elgin Road and B.B.D. Bagh takes one past the St. Paul's Cathedral, Bishop House, Birla Planetarium, Kolkata's prominent highrise Chatterjee International, Tata Centre, the Indian Museum, Asiatic Society, the Maidan, the Esplanade, Grand Hotel, and the historic Metro theatre, once the first point of release in the Eastern Hemisphere for Metro Goldwyn Mayer films. Fine dining at the Grand Hotel, the home of the essentially Kolkata snack - the "roll" - Nizam's, the authentic sherbet shop Paragon and New Market are all a stone's throw away.
• The Office Para (Office district) walk around features the British seat of administration in India - within a few blocks lie the Writers' Building, Raj Bhavan, Calcutta High Court, the General Post Office and B. B. D. Bagh. The express streetside lunch providers make for a delicious, cheap, unbelievably quick and dubiously hygienic meal which has to be eaten to be believed.

• A ramble through the Maidan takes one past clubs of every description from football clubs to the Press Club, stadiums of the big three football clubs and Eden Gardens, the Victoria Memorial, Chowringhee Avenue, Fort William, the Shaheed Minar, the Royal Calcutta Turf Club and a whole host of statues. Cricket, soccer, horse races and even the occasional rugby game can be watched at leisure on the Maidan. Horseback tours through the Maidan, and horse drawn tours around it, are quite popular.

• The Strand Road walk is the riverside walk past the "ghats" or piers, the palatial State Bank of India headquarters, the Kolkata Maritime Museum and the promenade in Millennium Park and Kolkata Riverfront. The Hoogli makes for excellent riverboat and people watching, and the Haora skyline is ramshackle but interesting. A look up and down the river shows the famous Howrah Bridge and Vidyasagar Setu. Kolkata's best ice cream joint, "Scoop", and the floating restaurant, "Floatel" are on Strand Road.
• The Park Street walk goes down Kolkata's foremost dining district with noted restaurants and eateries like Shiraz, Flury's, Trinca's and Kati Roll joints. Kolkata's nightlife revolves around Park Street's nightclubs, pubs and coffee houses. Park Street has famous buildings like the Asiatic Society, St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists, and the South Park Street Cemetery has cenotaphs and tombs of the who's who of the British Raj and Kolkata's European population. One end of Park Street links up to Chowringhee Avenue and the Maidan while the other end goes to Park Circus.