The Black Hole of Calcutta was the guard room in the old Fort William. This was a British East India Company Fort built to strengthen and protect the company’s holdings from other nations like the French, Dutch, and Portuguese. But the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah (think local king) didn’t like the British taking such control. He warned the British, but they just ignored him. Eventually, the Nawab made his point by attacking the fort. The Bengalese captured Fort William on June 19, 1756 and held the British prisoners of war inside the guard room. The claim is that the British and Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians were held overnight in conditions so cramped that many died from suffocation, heat exhaustion and crushing. It’s claimed that 123 prisoners died out of 146 prisoners held. Some historians have questioned this incident as well as the numbers of deaths and so on, but it is nonetheless the source of the phrase “the black hole of Calcutta”.

I can remember hearing the phrase “black hole of Calcutta” for my entire life, so I was elated to be able to actually see it. That was not possible. The fort has long since been torn down. The Kolkata Library now stands in its place. While the library is itself an impressive building, it doesn’t have a “black hole” guard room inside it. What we did get to see was a Memorial built to commemorate the incident, not that far from the original location. The memorial sits beside St. John’s Church. You can see the memorial in the first photo. The second photo is just one of the marble pieces that describes the famous event.

We went to our hotel after this long day of touring Kolkata. We checked into the Park Hotel. The hotel was sort of a cross between a modern art building, a strip mall, and I’m not sure what else. At any rate, we got our key and headed up to the third floor. We came out of the elevator, turned down the hall and stopped in our tracks. We were in near shock. For some unknown reason, we had been assigned a room in the Park Hotel that was located in the Black Hall of Calcutta. You can see for yourself in the third photo. The whole hall was done in black marble. Our bathroom was flooded on our arrival and we had various other problems. We survived the night, but I don’t mind telling you, it was a very long night.