The writers were the Company's lowest grade of employee, teenagers sent out from Britain to copy ledgers. Thomas Lyon put up a plain three-storey block to house them in 1777, facing what was then Tank Square.
It grew. By 1889 the front had been refaced into the long red Corinthian range that still defines the north side of BBD Bagh, topped with statues representing commerce, justice, science and agriculture, and the building had become the secretariat of the Bengal government.
On 8 December 1930, Benoy Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta walked into the corridors in European dress and shot Colonel N. S. Simpson, the inspector-general of prisons. The square outside is named for them: Benoy–Badal–Dinesh Bagh.
The state government moved most operations out to Nabanna in Howrah in 2013 for a restoration that has run long. The building is not open to visitors, and the exterior is the visit.
What the guidebook leaves out
Stand at the Lal Dighi tank on the south side. The reflection of the whole range in the water is the shot every photographer misses by standing too close.
