Free places to visit in Kolkata

Streets, ghats, parks, markets and places of worship you can visit without a ticket.

Kumartuli

Kumartuli: The lanes where the city’s gods are made from river clay.
Kumartuli Ghat: The potters’ own ghat on the Hooghly.

Bagbazar

Bagbazar Ghat: A wide northern ghat with a long view down the river.
Mayer Bari (Udbodhan House): The house where Sarada Devi lived, kept as a shrine.
Balaram Mandir: The house where the Ramakrishna Mission was founded in 1897.

Shyambazar

Shyambazar Five-Point Crossing: Netaji on horseback, where five roads meet.

Sovabazar

Sovabazar Rajbari: The palace of Raja Nabakrishna Deb, and a Durga Puja kept since 1757.

Hatibagan

Hatibagan Market: North Kolkata’s pavement market for saris, clothes and everything else.

Maniktala

Pareshnath Jain Temple: A garden of four Jain temples glittering with mirror-work and coloured glass.
Maniktala Market: A clock-tower market famous for its fish.

Belgachia

Belgachia Digambar Jain Temple: A red-and-white Jain temple in a quiet garden near the metro.

Jorasanko & Chitpur

Marble Palace: A merchant prince’s mansion crammed with European art.
Nakhoda Masjid: The city’s principal mosque, in red sandstone.
Chitpur Road (Rabindra Sarani): The oldest road in the city, lined with trades that survive nowhere else.

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.
College Square: A tank ringed by colleges where the city learns to swim.
Maha Bodhi Society Temple: A Buddhist vihara on College Square, built in 1920.

Bowbazar & Old Chinatown

Sea Ip Church: A Chinese clan temple from 1905, called a church.
Toong On Church: A red-brick Chinese temple that once housed the city’s first Chinese restaurant.
Bow Barracks: A lane of red-brick blocks, home to an Anglo-Indian community and its Christmas.
Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha: The 1892 monastery that gave Buddhist Temple Street its name.
Firingi Kalibari: The Kali temple linked to a Portuguese-descended poet of Bengali song.

Burrabazar

Armenian Church of the Holy Nazareth: The oldest church in the city, built by Armenian merchants in 1724.
Magen David Synagogue: A red-brick synagogue of 1884 with a tall clock spire.
Beth El Synagogue: An 1856 synagogue on Pollock Street.
Portuguese Church: The Catholic cathedral, founded in 1799 for the Portuguese community.
Mullick Ghat Flower Market: A vast wholesale flower market under Howrah Bridge.

Sealdah

Koley Market: The wholesale vegetable market beside Sealdah station.

Entally

Mother House: Where Mother Teresa lived, worked and is buried.
St James’ Church (Jora Girja): The twin-spired Gothic church that Kolkata calls Jora Girja.

BBD Bagh (Dalhousie)

BBD Bagh & Lal Dighi: The tank and square at the centre of the colonial capital.
General Post Office: A domed post office on the site of the first Fort William.
St Andrew’s Church: The 1818 Scottish church with a tall white spire.
Old Mission Church: The oldest Protestant church in the city, founded in 1770.

Esplanade & New Market

New Market (Hogg Market): A Victorian market hall of 1874 with a clock tower.
Shaheed Minar: A 48-metre column of 1828 at the edge of the Maidan.
Tipu Sultan Mosque: A many-domed mosque built by Tipu Sultan’s son in the 1840s.

Park Street

Oxford Bookstore: A Park Street bookshop that has been open since 1920.

Maidan & Chowringhee

St Paul’s Cathedral: The Gothic Revival cathedral beside the Maidan, consecrated in 1847.
Academy of Fine Arts: Galleries and the stage that is the home of Bengali group theatre.
The Maidan: The great open ground at the centre of the city.
Eden Gardens: The cricket ground, and the old garden with a Burmese pagoda beside it.

Bhawanipur

Sri Aurobindo Bhavan: The garden house where Sri Aurobindo was born in 1872.

Kalighat

Kalighat Kali Temple: One of the 51 Shakti Peeths, and the shrine the city is said to be named after.
Kalighat Patuapara: The south’s own idol-makers’ lane, near the temple.
Greek Orthodox Church: A Doric temple-fronted church of the 1920s, beside the Kalighat tram depot.
Lake Market: A neighbourhood market with a South Indian flavour.

Alipore

National Library of India: The country’s largest library, in the grounds of Belvedere House.

New Alipore

Suruchi Sangha Durga Puja: New Alipore’s award-winning theme puja.

Kidderpore

Bhukailash Temples: Twin Shiva temples of 1781 beside a tank, hidden in Kidderpore.

Garden Reach & Metiabruz

Sibtainabad Imambara: The tomb of Wajid Ali Shah, the exiled last Nawab of Awadh.

Ballygunge & Gariahat

Birla Mandir: A white-marble temple on Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, lit at night.
Gariahat: South Kolkata’s shopping crossroads for saris and pavement bargains.
Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture: A cultural institute at Golpark with a library, a museum and evening talks.
Maddox Square: A neighbourhood park famous for the adda at its Durga Puja.

Lake Gardens & Southern Avenue

Rabindra Sarobar: A 73-acre lake ringed by trees: South Kolkata’s morning walk.
Lake Kalibari: A much-loved Kali temple on Southern Avenue, founded in 1949.

Dhakuria

Japanese Buddhist Temple: A small white temple by the lake where a drum is beaten at dawn and dusk.
Dakshinapan: An open-air court of state handloom and handicraft emporia.

Tollygunge

Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Statue: Tollygunge’s tribute to the greatest star of Bengali cinema.
Karunamoyee Kali Temple, Tollygunge: A 1760 temple of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family beside Tolly’s Nullah.

Garia

Boral & Tripura Sundari Temple: The village of Pather Panchali, with an old goddess temple.

Patuli

Patuli Floating Market: A market on boats moored in a lake by the Bypass.

Kasba

Bosepukur Sitala Mandir Durga Puja: The Kasba puja that built a pandal from clay tea cups.

Barisha

Sabarna Sangrahashala: The family museum of the zamindars who once held Calcutta.
Barisha Aatchala: The pillared courtyard where a Durga Puja has been held since 1610.
Dwadash Shiva Temples, Barisha: Twelve Shiva temples in two rows beside a tank.

Thakurpukur & Joka

BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir: A large carved-stone temple on Diamond Harbour Road beyond Joka.

Budge Budge & Achipur

Achipur Chinese Temple: Where India’s Chinese community began, on the river near Budge Budge.
Komagata Maru Memorial: The memorial at Budge Budge to the passengers shot in 1914.

Tangra (Chinatown)

Chinese Kali Temple: A Kali temple run by Tangra’s Chinese community, with noodles as prasad.
East Kolkata Wetlands: A Ramsar wetland of fish ponds that cleans the city’s waste water.

Beliaghata

Gandhi Bhawan (Hyderi Manzil): The house where Gandhi fasted to stop the riots of 1947.
Subhas Sarobar: East Kolkata’s big lake and park.

Salt Lake (Bidhannagar)

Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre: The government cultural centre for eastern India, with craft fairs and performances.

Lake Town & Bangur

Lake Town Clock Tower: A 30-metre replica of London’s Big Ben on VIP Road.
Sreebhumi Sporting Club Durga Puja: The Lake Town puja famous for giant replica pandals.

Dum Dum

Clive House: One of the oldest buildings around Kolkata, on a mound in Dum Dum.

Dakshineswar

Dakshineswar Kali Temple: Rani Rashmoni’s nine-spired temple on the Hooghly, where Sri Ramakrishna lived.
Adyapeath: A white temple of Adya Ma with three images set one above another.

Baranagar & Cossipore

Cossipore Udyanbati: The garden house where Sri Ramakrishna spent his last months.
Baranagar Math: The site of the first monastery of the Ramakrishna Order.
Kuthi Ghat: Baranagar’s old riverside ghat, named for the Dutch factory that stood here.
Kripamayee Kali Temple: A nine-spired riverside Kali temple of 1848, older than Dakshineswar.

Sodepur

Khadi Pratisthan, Sodepur: The ashram Gandhi called his second home.

Panihati

Mahotsavtala Ghat, Panihati: The riverside banyan where the Chida-Dahi festival has been held for five centuries.

Khardah

Shyamsundar Temple, Khardah: The Vaishnav heart of Khardah, the town of Nityananda.
Twenty-six Shiva Temples, Khardah: Twenty-six aatchala temples round one courtyard near the river.

Titagarh

Annapurna Temple, Chanak: Dakshineswar’s near-twin, built in 1875 by Rani Rashmoni’s daughter.

Barrackpore

Gandhi Ghat: A riverside memorial where Gandhi’s ashes were immersed.
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya: A museum of Gandhi’s life and his work in Bengal.

Strand Road & the Ghats

Howrah Bridge: The cantilever bridge that is the city’s emblem.
Armenian Ghat: A ghat built by an Armenian merchant in 1734.
Babughat: A colonnaded ghat of 1830, built by Rani Rashmoni in her husband’s memory.
Prinsep Ghat: A Palladian pavilion by the river, under the Vidyasagar Setu.

Howrah & the West Bank

Santragachi Jheel: A lake beside a railway station that fills with migratory ducks each winter.
Belur Math: The headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, on the west bank.

More ways to explore Kolkata

Last checked on 2026-10-02. Each place was checked to exist and its position confirmed. Timings, closing days and ticket prices are shown only where known and can change: confirm before you travel.