Writers' Building

Writers' Building is the long red building that lines one side of BBD Bag in central Kolkata. It was built by Thomas Lyon on behalf of Richard Barwell and is said to have been the city's first three-storey building. It first housed the junior clerks of the East India Company, known as writers, which gave it its name; Warren Hastings later turned it into an administrative office. The building is now about 150 metres long.

The land once belonged to St. Anne's Church, which was pulled down. As the Company needed clerks who knew Persian and Hindi, Fort William College was set up inside, with a hostel, a lecture hall, libraries and an exam room, and long columned verandas of 128 feet were added on the upper floors.

Under British rule it became the secretariat of Bengal, and new blocks turned it into a vast complex. Corinthian columns and statues of Greek deities standing for Justice, Commerce, Science and Agriculture decorate the facade. The building witnessed many events of the freedom movement.