South Park Street Cemetery (Calcutta)

During the height of the British Raj, Calcutta served as the capital of India. Because of this, there are several historic foreign cemeteries in the city. And the grandest among these is South Park Street Cemetery.



I believe that this cemetery should by rights belong in the lofty pantheon of the world's great cemeteries, alongside Pere Lachaise, La Recoleta, and Highgate Cemetery. Upon entering the gate, the visitor is overwhelmed by a vista of towering monuments amid well-tended vegetation. Banyans of different kinds are common here, and garden plants such as crotons and dracaenas are planted lovingly along the pathways among the tombs.

The cemetery was opened on August 25, 1767, when it was an area of relatively high ground amid swampy alluvial plains. Park Street, part of which was once a causeway, was built as an access road to the cemeteries here. The cemetery was closed in the 1830s, but burials with family were permitted in the following couple of decades. A very limited number of honorary burials have taken place since, with a few in the 20th century, and one in the 21st.





The people buried here include prominent Britons of two centuries ago: sea captains, high government officials, leaders of the British East India Company, and men honored by knighthood.





Sir William Jones, a great scholar of Indian culture and botany, and an accomplished linguist whose research of the Sanskrit language launched the first serious scholarly inquiries into the origins of the Indo-European language family, is interred here in one of the cemetery's tallest monuments.

The tomb of Sir William Jones


The tomb of Elizabeth Barwell, one of the most massive pyramids in the cemetery


There are a number of legendary graves here. One is that of Charles "Hindoo" Stuart, a British major general who "went native," adopting the customs, dress and even religion of the locals. His tomb is shaped like a small Hindu temple.

The grave of "Hindoo" Stuart.


Another legendary tomb is the Dennison monument, known as the "Bleeding Tomb," because at certain times of year it appears to bleed. (Probably iron oxide leeching out during the rains.)

The Bleeding Tomb


And here's the spiral-columned tomb of young Rose Aylmer, who died of cholera a year after arriving in India.


And the grave of the Anglo-Indian poet Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, who helped inspire the Young Bengal Movement in the early 19th century.



There used to be a North Park Street Cemetery. Unfortunately, it was razed decades ago for urban expansion. Grave tablets from that cemetery were preserved and mounted in the eastern wall of South Park Street Cemetery.



On top of this, there is a small section where graves from the nearby Scottish Cemetery were moved. The Scottish Cemetery has recently been cleaned up and is under restoration.

South Park Street Cemetery contains well over 1,000 burials. If you visit (and if you're a graver, you must!), be sure to stop by the cemetery office and purchase their informative cemetery booklet for Rs. 100 (just over US$2). The proceeds go to helping maintain the cemetery.

A brief video:

On Find A Grave

South Park Street Cemetery

Getting There

South Park Street Cemetery is very centrally located in Calcutta, situated by the intersection of Park Street (now Mother Teresa Sarani) and Lower Circular Road (now AJC Bose Road). It's probably within walking distance from wherever you're staying. It is a 20 minute walk from the Sudder Street area, where the majority of the low-to-mid-level hotels that cater to foreigners are. From the Park Street Metro Station, walk along Park Street in an easterly direction, along the right-hand side of the road, for just under 1.5 km. You can't miss the gate of the cemetery.