Pictures of Dhaka or Dacca from 19th & early 20th Centuries

Navarene · #1 October 31, 2008, 04:04 AM

A very nice presentation/collection of pictures of what Dacca was like in the late 19th and early 20th century. A friend of mine has emailed me the following pics and I thought I would share them with you

Hard to recognize the beautiful town Dacca was even in the late 1970s to the urban eyesore it has become today. Btw, everything changed for worse or better in the last 100+ years but the villagers! So sad!

Enjoy!

P.S. Mods pls merge this to "pics of Bangladesh" thread if you think its worth merging.

Ramna Gate-1901 (where present day Doyel Chattar is located

Chawk Bazar-1904 (Beside this road today's Sheikh Burhanuddin College is located. We know this road as Nazimuddin Road today)

Dhaka College-1904

Dhakeswari Mandir-1904

More to come

Navarene · #2 October 31, 2008, 04:10 AM

Lalbag Kella- 1872

Mit Ford Hospital-1904 (where present day Salimullah Medical College is located)

NorthBook Hall- 1904 (the area we know as NorthBook Hall Road today)

Navarene · #3 October 31, 2008, 04:16 AM

A british officer's mess in Dhaka- 1934

Old Dhaka College campus- 1872

Pari Bibi'r Mazar-1904 (inside Laalbag Kella)

Navarene · #4 October 31, 2008, 04:21 AM

An unidentified street scene of Dhaka- 1872

Chawk Bazar, Dhaka- 1885

Tongi Bridge on Turag river- 1885 (this is the same road we use now a days to communicate between Airport to Jaydevpur)

Navarene · #5 October 31, 2008, 04:25 AM

Deer Park of Nawab of Dhaka- 1875 (A place at Shahbag where perhaps present day's Ramna Park is located)

Buriganga river side- 1880

Narinda (present day Old Dhaka) Christian graveyard- 1875

Navarene · #6 October 31, 2008, 04:31 AM

St. Thomas Church- 1872

Steel Bridge on Dholai Khal- 1904 (that bus condactor's call Lohar Pool today)

River Padma- 1860

nobody · #7 October 31, 2008, 04:32 AM

Navarane,
Thank you. Just what I was looking for

Navarene · #8 October 31, 2008, 04:35 AM

A Bangladeshi village- 1860

A group of Bangladeshi villagers- 1860 (making Hooka from coconut)

Gorai River, Kushtia- 1860

Navarene · #9 October 31, 2008, 04:38 AM

An educated Bangladeshi of 1860

Another Bangladeshi of 1860

Tintin · #10 October 31, 2008, 04:56 AM

Great stuff. Googled for the landmarks and reached a thread http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=436396 which contains a few other photos.

This is another picture of the Tongi bridge taken in the 1880s (from that thread). Wikipedia says about a bridge built by Mir Jumla there in the 1660s. Is the remains in the foreground that old bridge ?

auntu · #11 October 31, 2008, 05:23 AM

Post no. 3 first pic it's the present Dhaka club.
Post no. 4 first pic: It's also Chawk Bazar.

sunny747 · #12 October 31, 2008, 05:26 AM

thank you so much, thank youuuuu sooo muchhhhhh.......
i loved it. please send or post more...........man!! dhaka was soo pretty..

sunny747 · #13 October 31, 2008, 05:33 AM

do you have more?

ammark · #14 October 31, 2008, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tintin
This is another picture of the Tongi bridge taken in the 1880s (from that thread). Wikipedia says about a bridge built by Mir Jumla there in the 1660s. Is the remains in the foreground that old bridge ?

Nope this isnt the one. This one was paid for and built by the Raja of Bhawal (if you read Partha Chatterjee's "A Princely Imposor" which I'd recommend, you'll read about quite an interesting story). This Turag Bridge wasnt constructed before the mid 1800s.

The Area of Tejgaon, stretching north through Gazipur district all the way to almost Mymensingh were all part of the Bhawal estate. Currently Tejgaon to this bridge is Dhaka city, then onwards north its Gazipur which is increasingly becoming an industrial zone (all his lands having come a long way into being in smaller private hands over the past 60 years).

sandpiper · #15 October 31, 2008, 06:39 AM

I was surprised to see the old Dhaka College campus ! It looks so desolate ! exactly how old is that picture ?

Old Dhaka College campus- 1872

sandpiper · #16 October 31, 2008, 06:50 AM

so it was 136 years old . hmm ..then when was it rebuilt to this current form ?

sandpiper · #17 October 31, 2008, 06:52 AM

That was really nice in 1904. Thanks for the pictures

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navarene
Dhaka College-1904

Tintin · #18 October 31, 2008, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ammark
Nope this isnt the one. This one was paid for and built by the Raja of Bhawal (if you read Partha Chatterjee's "A Princely Imposor" which I'd recommend, you'll read about quite an interesting story). This Turag Bridge wasnt constructed before the mid 1800s.

Thanks. Found a preview of it in google books - http://tinyurl.com/5sg4eq

shabbir · #19 October 31, 2008, 07:29 AM

Fantastic Photo,great to see our DHAKA College in old days.

Navarene · #20 October 31, 2008, 08:06 AM

Dear BCers, please post rare old photos of Dhaka city or of any other city of Bangladesh you have or find in this thread. This way we can make a picture archive of our good old Dhaka

Rabz · #21 October 31, 2008, 08:23 AM

Many thanks for the lovely pics Navarene.
Its just pure gold.

Pls keep them coming if you have more.

ialbd · #22 October 31, 2008, 11:25 AM

amazing stuff Navarene, sent this link for this thread to like 3 friends already.....

Nocturnal · #23 October 31, 2008, 11:33 AM

Whoever got a facebook account can join/view this global group for more old Dhaka pictures, infact all the pics posted in this thread are also in that group and more- 455 in total so far!

DHAKA - 400 years History in Photographs.

Beamer · #24 October 31, 2008, 11:40 AM

Tremendous Navarene!

al Furqaan · #25 October 31, 2008, 01:21 PM

thoroughly enjoyed it.

that "other bangladeshi" under the "educated" one is RIPPED. what the hell does he do for a living/eat?

why can our fast bowlers develop a physique like that? i mean they work out all the time? shoot, i'd just be happy if mash had my physique...

as long as he bowls the way he has been in ODIs, i guess we're fine.