St John's church, the oldest parish in West Bengal to be renovated

St John's church, the oldest parish of Bengal will undergo renovation from its poor structure and will soon have an elegant look. Thanks to the World Monuments Fund, which has taken Dalhousie Square under its wings.

The church is located in the heart of Dalhousie square and has been the oldest extant place of worship for Christians.

The funds for the restoration project, $75,000 is provided by the American Express Bank. Around Rs 25 lakh ($64,000) will be used to redo the structure, which took three years to construct and later consecrated on June 24, 1787, when the nativity of St John the Baptist was celebrated.

The renovation will start from August 5, when Bishop Samuel Rau unveils a plaque to indicate the start of the project. The project is managed by Intach and the drawings were done by consulting architect–conservator Manish Chakaraborti and Anandpran Gupta which is being executed by Caltech India.

G.M. Kapur, convener, INTACH, schedules the project to be completed in nine months.

Bishop Raju said that after completion of the projects, a light–and–sound show will be started there.

Note: St John's Church, originally a cathedral, was among the first public buildings to be erected by the East India Company after Kolkata became the effective capital of British India. It was designed by Lieutenant James Agg of the Bengal Engineers and its construction was completed by 1787. Like many British churches in India, it is based on James Gibbs' St. Martin–in the–Fields, London, but due to poor subsoil conditions, the entire fourth tier of the steeple was omitted giving the building a compressed dumpy appearance.