page_title: Metropolitan Building (Kolkata)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Metropolitan Building (Kolkata) / History
caption_attribution_description: A photo of Chowringhee Square, Kolkata from 1945 GI photo collection. The original description is "Chowringhee Street---Calcutta's main throughfare, an amazing parade of fascinating sights and sounds. Every soldier who has trod its length retains memories of one of the most colorful and interesting streets." in the world.
context_page_description: Metropolitan Building is the number 46.26 building on Chowringhee Road in Kolkata near Esplanade. Formerly known as the Whiteway Laidlaw department store, it was a famous department store in Calcutta during the British Rule in India. This neo-baroque emporium—with domes, a clock tower and arched recessed windows—exemplifies fashionable shopping during the British Raj in British India.
  The building was built in 1905. Post Independence Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. assumed ownership, so people know it more commonly as Metropolitan Building. It is located near the Shaheed Minar and the Grand Hotel.
context_section_description: The building was built in 1905. 
  
  After Independence, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. assumed ownership, so people know it more commonly as Metropolitan Building.
caption: The building's clock tower seen at the end of the photo taken in Esplanade, Calcutta in 1945
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