The Kenefeck Family Website

James Baille Fraser, A View of the West Side of Tank Square, 1819. Colored aquatint, engraved by R Havell, plate 22 from 'Fraser's Views of Calcutta and its Environs', London, 1824-6'; 28 x 42.5 cm

Home to William Stokeld, where Robert Kenefeck would have stayed , in 1853

"The European settlement moved out form the fortified quarter in TANK SQUARE, now BENOY BADAL DINESH BAGH (BBD Bagh), "

"the West Bengal Tourist Office in the historic DALHOUSIE SQUARE- the new name is difficult to pronounce-BENOY BADAL DINESH BAGH (BBD BAGH). "

B.B.D. Bagh
Named after three young freedom fighters—Benoy, Badal and Dinesh, is a square built around the old Lal Dighi tank, which still exits. It was later called the Tank Square and then the Dalhousie Square. It is still the 'heart' of Calcutta and many famous buildings housing important businesses and banks are located here.

Other interesting buildings in the B.B.D. Bagh (Dalhousie) area are the Royal Exchange (a one-time residence of Robert Clive and now the office of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry), St. John's Church. This church's yard has the Mausoleum of 'Calcutta's Founder', Job Charnock. The building is supposedly the oldest piece of masonry in Calcutta.

BBD Bagh (Dalhousie Square) : Dalhousie Square (renamed Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh after the three martyrs of Bengal) was created in the heart of the imperial capital of Calcutta. The tank in the centre, fed by natural springs, is said to have supplied Charnock with drinking water. Historical buildings surround the square. The northern side is occupied by Writers' Building. To the east are commercial houses and the West Bengal Government Tourist Bureau (3/2, BBD Bagh East Tel: 2485168/5917). On the southern side is Raj Bhavan, residence of the Governor. Beside that are the State Legislative Assembly House and the Calcutta High Court. St John's Cathedral, close to Raj Bhavan is the oldest church in Calcutta. On the western side is the imposing white domed General Post Office, next to which is the Reserve Bank of India building. Netaji Subhash Road is the centre of the onetime English commercial houses which today flourish in Indian hands. Lyon's Range stock exchange, behind Clive Street, is worth a visit for a glimpse of the frenzied dealing in shares, periodically erupting onto the street.

Calcutta's administrative centre is BBD Bagh (Dalhousie Square). In the centre of the square is the large Lal Dighi Tank, (artificial pond). On the square's north side is the Writers' Building, built in 1780 for the convenience of young writers brought out from Britain by the East India Company. Inside it has endless corridors and vast chambers, and where most of West Bengal's forms, carbon copies and red ink come from. Also on BBD Bagh is the GPO, built on the site of the `Black Hole of Calcutta'. Here, on an uncomfortably humid night in 1756, over 140 British inhabitants - captured by Siraj-ud-daula, the nawab of Murshidabad - were forced into an underground cellar causing many to die overnight of suffocation. Another symbol of Calcutta's Scotish tradition is the gray spire of St. Andrew's Kirk, which rises in the middle of the road at the northeast end of BBD Bagh. This church was built in 1818. To the east, the Old Mission Church, founded in 1770 by the Swedish missionary Johann Kiernander. South of the GPO, St. Jhn's Church was erected in 1787. At the south of BBD Bagh is Government House, the official home of the Governor of Bengal, also known as Raj Bhavan, was built at the end of the eighteenth century.It is approached by four ornamental gateways guarded by lions and sphinxes. Nearby, opposite the Assembly House (Rajya Sabha) of West Bengal's Legislative Council, are the All India Radio building, and the sports complex of Eden Gardens, site of huge world-famous cricket ground with a capacity of 100,000 seats.

James Baille Fraser, A View of Writers Building, 1819. Colored aquatint, engraved by R Havell Junr, plate 6 from 'Fraser's Views of Calcutta and its Environs', London, 1824-6'; 28 x 42.5 cm