A vast expanse of green in the heart of the city's brick-and-mortar matrix, the Maidan is where Kolkata's residents congregate for walks, spirited cricket and football matches, family outings, dates, tonga (horse-drawn carriage) rides and general idling.
At roughly 4 square kilometers, the largely unmanicured recreational space originally hosted the neighborhoods of a nascent Kolkata. In 1756, these were flattened to allow the cannons of Fort William (renamed Vijay Durg in 2025 and still used as a military base) clear lines of sight, following the city’s sacking by Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal, and the subsequent Black Hole incident that saw a number of British prisoners die of suffocation.
The grounds are flanked by the Victoria Memorial and St Paul's Cathedral to the south and the Hooghly riverbanks to the west. A tram line cuts through the greens, and hopping onto one of the carriages for a slow ride is great fun.
