St. John’s Church, Kolkata

St. John's Church, Kolkata tickets: which one to buy

Saint John's Church stands in the BBD Bagh area of central Kolkata, near the Raj Bhavan and the Writers' Building, and a small admission fee is charged for visitors. It is one of the oldest public buildings in Kolkata, having served as the city's Anglican cathedral before Saint Paul's Cathedral was built. The church is a stop on heritage walks of Dalhousie Square, which also include Saint Andrew's Church, the General Post Office and the site of the Black Hole of Calcutta.

The churchyard holds some of the most important monuments of the British period, including the mausoleum of Job Charnock, founder of Calcutta. Visitors should dress modestly, and a caretaker is usually on hand. The area is busy on weekdays, so Sunday or early morning is a quieter time to visit. Photography inside may require permission from the caretaker.

Visiting St. John's Church, Kolkata: what to see

The church was built between 1784 and 1787, largely funded by public lottery, on land donated by Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb, and it was designed by James Agg in a neoclassical style inspired by Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London, with a stone spire. It served as the cathedral of Calcutta until 1847. Inside, the church holds a painting of the Last Supper by Johann Zoffany, in which the apostles are portrayed with the faces of Calcutta residents of the time, and memorial tablets to British officials and soldiers. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, worshipped here.

The churchyard contains the octagonal mausoleum of Job Charnock, who founded the English trading settlement in 1690 and died in 1692, the oldest masonry structure in Kolkata, and a memorial to the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta of 1756, as well as the tomb of Lady Canning. The church's interior includes a gallery supported by columns, and the altar is framed by memorials. The Zoffany painting hangs on the wall near the altar, and the faces of the apostles are said to include local celebrities. The churchyard's mausoleums are among the finest examples of colonial funerary architecture in India. The church also displays an old chair used by Warren Hastings. Stone tablets record the history of the church and its benefactors. The spire was damaged by an earthquake in the nineteenth century and rebuilt.

St. John's Church, Kolkata opening hours and the best time to go

The church is open daily, with services on Sundays. Kolkata's best season for sightseeing is from November to February, when the weather is cooler; summers are hot and humid, and the monsoon brings heavy rain from June to September. Durga Puja in October fills the city with festivities, and Christmas brings decorations to Park Street. Early morning heritage walks avoid the heat and the traffic. Allow about half an hour for the church and churchyard, and continue to Saint Andrew's Church and the General Post Office nearby. The Victoria Memorial, a large marble museum set in gardens, is about fifteen minutes by taxi.