Ward No. 46, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, India

Currency Building

Ward No. 46, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, India

Access unknown

We could not determine this from the source data.

The Currency Building is a three-story Italianate structure completed in 1833 in Kolkata's B. B. D. Bagh (Dalhousie Square) business district. Originally erected to house the Calcutta branch of the Agra Bank, it was repurposed in 1868 as the Office of the Issue and Exchange of Government Currency under the British Raj, and later served as the Reserve Bank of India's first central office from 1935 to 1937. Built in Chunar sandstone and marble, the building features a wrought-iron and Venetian-windowed entrance and a central hall formerly crowned by three domes with skylights that once sheltered exchange counters for banknotes, precious metals, and coin. Slated for demolition in 1994, the structure was rescued by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation; the Archaeological Survey of India subsequently restored it between 2005 and 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reopened the building as a museum on 11 January 2020. It holds the status of both a Grade I KMC Heritage Building and a Monument of National Importance.