College Street
কলেজ স্ট্রিট (বইপাড়া)
Boi Para: the book neighbourhood
A street of universities and colleges lined with thousands of book stalls, from scholarly publishers to second-hand textbooks. The Coffee House upstairs has hosted writers, film-makers and students arguing over an infusion for generations.
Did you know
- The Coffee House building was originally the Albert Hall, a public meeting hall.
- Old sherbet and tea cabins around the street date from the 1910s.
A short walk to try
Browse the stalls from Mahatma Gandhi Road to College Square, climb to the Coffee House, then finish with a sherbet at Paramount.
Getting there
- Metro
- Mahatma Gandhi Road or Central (Blue Line)
Places to visit in College Street
- Thanthania Kalibari: A small, very old Kali temple on Bidhan Sarani.
- College Street (Boi Para): A kilometre of book stalls between the city’s oldest colleges.
- Indian Coffee House: The high-ceilinged hall where Bengal’s writers and students argue over coffee.
- College Square: A tank ringed by colleges where the city learns to swim.
- Paramount: A sherbet shop from 1918 with marble tables and a famous daab sherbet.
- Favourite Cabin: A 1918 tea cabin where revolutionaries and poets met.
- Asutosh Museum of Indian Art: The first university museum in India, devoted to the art of eastern India.
- Maha Bodhi Society Temple: A Buddhist vihara on College Square, built in 1920.