After the 'Black Hole' fiasco, a moated 'second' Fort William (closed to public) was constructed in octagonal, Vaubanesque form (1758). The whole village of Gobindapur was flattened to give the new fort's cannons a clear line of fire. Though sad for then-residents, this created the Maidan pronounced 'moi-dan') a vast 3km-long park that is today as fundamental to Kolkata as Central Park is to New York City.

Fort William remains hidden within a walled military zone but for an amusingly far-fetched tale of someone who managed to get in, read Simon Winchester's Calcutta.