Markets and Malls
New Market is Kolkata's historic shopping district. Opened in 1874, it was named Hogg Market after the commissioner Sir Stuart Hogg. The beautiful fountain and benches at the market no longer exist, but the popularity of the market has not waned, and the beautiful gothic clock tower recalls the British heritage of the market. It was renamed New Market after Independence. New Market led the way for Christmas and New Year festivities with confectionery shops like Nahoum's putting up a special spread. The market is organized on the basis of merchandize. It burnt down partially in 1985 but has been restored and expanded with a new building since.
The Park Street, Camac Street and Shakespeare Sarani are considered to be a high street of Kolkata with many commercial establishments & high end shopping destinations, with lots of shopping malls, boutiques, restaurants and stand alone retail outlets. Gariahat and Shyambazar are two shopping districts catering mostly to the middle class and lower middle class of Kolkata. College Street is an area famous for its bookstores.
Kolkata has seen a spurt of shopping malls with the rise of the buying power of the Kolkata populace. Shopping arcades like Forum Mall and Emami Shoppers' City in Central Calcutta have brought international brands from Swarovski to Godiva to the city, breaking the city's dependence on the older market complexes like A.C. Market, Dakshinapan shopping center and Vardaan Market, which were mainly Chinese import dependent.
Most of the new malls in Kolkata are located in the newer developed areas like Salt Lake, Rajarhat and along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. Some of the popular malls in Kolkata are City Centre, a open mall located in Salt Lake, City Centre, Rajarhat, South City (the biggest mall in Eastern India), Metropolis, Avani Riverside, Home Town and Axis Mall.Swabhumi has been modelled as an ethnic shopping arcade near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.
Read more about this topic: Places Of Interest In Kolkata
Famous quotes containing the words markets and/or malls:
“When the great markets by the sea shut fast
All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
When even lovers find their peace at last,
And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1919)
“The figured wheel rolls through shopping malls and prisons,
Over farms, small and immense, and the rotten little downtowns.”
—Robert Pinsky (b. 1940)