Alliance Francaise, the city’s cultural bridge with France, is returning to the address where it stood for 59 years till a fire ousted it in 1999. The shift to Park Mansion is slated to take place in mid-December.
“Khaleel Munzil (the current rented address on AJC Bose Road) is a nice building but it is up for sale. We want to move out before we are asked to,” says director of Alliance Francaise du Bengale (AFB) Stephane Amalir.
AFB operates out of Khaleel Munzil and Bimal Villa on West Range, a few buildings away. “We will retain Bimal Villa but the library and the administrative offices will shift to Park Mansion, where we have acquired a 3,500sq ft apartment on the second floor on a 10-year lease,” Amalir says.
The French culture hub, then called Alliance Francaise du Calcutta, was housed at Park Mansion ever since it opened in 1940. It is the second in India after the Pondicherry centre, which turned 125 this year. “Back then, Alliance Francaise had 8,000 sq ft over two apartments in the first and the third floor. The consulate too was there as was the Trade Commission in separate apartments. I would pick up a book from the Alliance library upstairs before going home,” recalls Fabrice Etienne, the consul-general, who was posted at the Trade Commission here for two years in 1995-96.
The fire broke out in the wee hours of April 18, 1999. “We were rendered homeless and moved around to Max Mueller Bhavan, Nehru Children’s Museum and Sukhsagar Building in Elgin Road till we settled at West Range,” says Kaushik Chakraborty, a teacher at Alliance since 1981. Veteran staff members, like him, Mirza Salim Baig and Amitabha Ghosh, are nostalgic about the return to the old address.
Of course, much has changed. The wooden staircase is gone, gutted completely by the fire. It has been replaced by marble steps. Amalir is busy supervising the renovations. “We were handed an empty shell. The idea is to accommodate modern needs while keeping the charm of the old building.” Fire-proofing gadgets are being installed. In the library, there will be tablets to access Culturetheque, the upcoming e-library platform. “Members will be given passwords to log in from home as well to magazines, books, films and reading material online.” An 800sq ft room will host film screenings and conferences while bigger cultural events will use outside venues. The 18ft high ceiling will be retained as also the wooden doors and windows.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Sudeshna Banerjee / Tuesday – November 04th, 2014