(From top) 9 Jawaharlal Nehru Road and the Bourne & Shepherd building. Pictures by Anindya Shankar Ray

The face of Chowringhee could change in the near future, if the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has its way. A cluster of three ancient buildings at the crossing of Jawaharlal Nehru Road and SN Banerjee Road, that look like they could crumble any moment, could be wiped out soon. The end is nigh for one of them. The project to construct a highrise building in place of one of them has been green-lighted by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC). A court order is awaited to demolish it, according to S.K. Dhar, partner, Fox & Mandal, the law firm. The LIC, the city’s wealthiest landlord, owns all three buildings.

Dhar, whose firm is fighting the case against tenants on behalf of the LIC, said the CMC had sanctioned the project about a month ago, although the tenants of the building at 9 Jawaharlal Nehru Road are in the dark about it. A ground plus seven-storey building will come up there.

Another building that stands the chance of being snuffed out through sheer neglect is the fire-ravaged Bourne & Shepherd building on the opposite pavement, an adjunct of the grander Metropolitan Building. The LIC, which owns this heritage structure as well, is allowing it to disintegrate. This studio dating back to 1910 is one of the oldest photographic establishments in the world. The CMC’s list of heritage structures classifies it as a Grade II B building for its “architectural style”, of which the tower leading to the studio on the terrace was severely damaged in the fire in 1991. The words Metropolitan Insurance House, after the company that once used to own it before the LIC took over, emblazoned on one of the walls of the tower, have flaked off along with the plaster — a common feature in all these four LIC buildings.

It is said the three buildings at Nos 1A SN Banerjee Road, 9 JL Nehru Road and 10 JL Nehru Road are among the oldest in the city, dating back to a time when Chowringhee was the most upscale neighbourhood in the city, and the “white” districts were comparable in glamour and cleanliness with the poshest areas in London. According to the street directory in the 1915 edition of the PM Bagchi almanac, at a time when SN Banerjee Road was known as Corporation Street, 8 Chowringhee Road was occupied by Yusuf Ali, Hibtullah & Co Jewellers and Watchmakers; 9 Chowringhee Road by Dr Smith Brothers, American dentists, Dr DR Smith and WM Smith; 9/1, 9/2 by AW Perot & Co Electrical Engineers & Co; 9/2 by The Columbia Dental Supply Co Ltd; 12 was Continental Hotel, where Mark Twain stayed. The latter is now Peerless Inn.

The jewellery shops may have disappeared from this stretch of the road, but the house at 9 JL Nehru Road (earlier Chowringhee Road) still displays the signboard of Drs Smith Brothers, dental surgeons. Their spacious chamber on the first floor is currently occupied by Sumit Kumar Basu, himself a dentist. Basu, who lives in a smaller flat above it, said the American dental surgeons, MJK Smith and BJK Smith, arrived in Calcutta in 1897, and a group of orthodontists worked here under that name till 1920, when they left. Once their clinics occupied both floors. Now there are offices on the second floor, one of which has a street-facing wall missing. The wafer-thin bricks and the convex bricks in the columns testify to the antiquity of the building.

The building, which is said to have been leased from Sir David Ezra, has a stately wooden staircase like its two companions. Basu’s chamber with high ceilings boasts elegant wooden furniture — huge concave sofas — that have seen better days. The waiting room leads to a tiny terrace crowded with flower pots overlooking Chowringhee. Adjoining No. 9 is the Esplanade Metro station, which Basu says, used to be No. 8, once famous for its neon sign kettle from whose spout Lipton tea would flow out. Auddy & Co, once famous tobacconist, still has its establishment on the groundfloor, now divided among the partners. On the other side is No. 10, surrounded by filthy eateries and leased out to Govinddas Madhodas Mundhra from the 1960s, when LIC came into being. Its interiors are relatively better maintained.

Hawkers selling garments occupy the entrance of the building at No. 9 and the adjoining pavement. Inside, two notices put up by the LIC dated July 11, 2007, and August 13, 2008, says the building is in a “dangerous condition” and that the LIC “cannot be held responsible in any way in the event any portion of the building collapses…” According to S.K.Dhar of Fox & Mandal, Drs Smith Brothers were the main tenants of the building, but there are 22 sub tenants as well. The high court held that all of them will be regularised as tenants provided they paid rent in keeping with the prevailing market rate.

Rent at market rates has been the bone of contention between LIC and its tenants. LIC demands enhanced rates, but old-time tenants, many of whom have already vacated their flats in the Bourne & Shepherd building, are not willing to give in to what they feel are unjustified demands. The building constructed by Mackintosh Burn is in a precarious condition, debris still hurtles down the lift shaft on the pavement and water leaks through the roof. A few days ago, scaffolding was put up but the few remaining tenants have their doubts about the efficacy of slapdash repairs.

Dora Smith, where fashionable women and actresses like Kanan Debi once shopped for glad rags, was located at 1A SN Banerjee Road. This tumble-down building used to house Keventer’s and Livewire Cleaning, the first mechanical dry cleaning establishment. The Dasgupta family, that once owned Bhagyalakshmi Cotton Mills, had lived in that building at what was then 1A and 1B Corporation Street from 1946, when they moved from Dhaka. At that time, the building had marble floors — it still does.

Going by past records, allowing old buildings to decompose seems to be the LIC’s unwritten policy. Would Metropolitan Building and Queens Mansion have survived without a public outcry? LIC’s estates officers like the regional manager (estates), Ramana Rao, are either in “meetings” all day or “too busy” to talk to the media.

However shabby 1A SN Banerjee Road may look from outside, it seems to be quite sound structurally. The LIC has not served any notice either for eviction or rent enhancement on the remaining tenants, but at the same time it has done nothing to improve its condition. Perhaps they wish it would curl up and die.