Fort William

Fort William stands on the east bank of the Hooghly River on the Maidan in Kolkata, West Bengal, and is one of the largest forts in India. The East India Company raised the first Fort William in 1696 near the present General Post Office, naming it after King William III. Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah captured that fort in June 1756, the episode that produced the Black Hole of Calcutta story. After Robert Clive's victory at Plassey in 1757, the Company decided to build a far stronger fort on a new site south of the settlement, clearing the village of Gobindapur to open fields of fire. Construction began in 1758 and continued for more than two decades, reaching completion around 1781 at an enormous cost for the period. The design is an irregular eight-pointed star in plan, surrounded by a moat and low, thick brick ramparts built to resist artillery rather than to impress. Six main gates open from the walls, among them the Calcutta Gate, the Plassey Gate, the Chowringhee Gate and the Water Gate facing the river. Inside the walls are barracks, arsenals, officers' quarters, a Gothic-style garrison church dedicated to St Peter and the headquarters buildings of the army. The fort never withstood a serious siege after its completion and served instead as the military heart of British Bengal. After independence it passed to the Indian Army and has housed the Eastern Command headquarters ever since. Because it is an active military installation, there is no regular museum or ticketed visit, and entry is limited to those with prior permission from the command. Most of the structure is therefore appreciated from the Maidan side, where the grassed glacis, moat edges and gateways are visible, and from the riverside stretch near Outram Ghat. The brickwork and ramparts remain in the care of the army, and the layout largely follows the 18th-century plan.