Considered by many as the prettiest of all the bungalows on the River Hooghly, the BNR House in Garden Reach, constructed on classical lines in 1846, was apparently inspired by the Temple of Winds of Athens, which was also said to be the inspiration behind the Metcalfe Hall on Strand Road in Calcutta. The milk-white  building is neither massive nor majestic.

It is rather dainty and small, raised on a solid, but ornamental basement and 38 columns that are 36 feet in height. Originally the rear of the building also had eight more pillars, which have been demolished subsequently, for the proposed plan of expansion of the Railway hospital. Ridiculously, after the demolition, four pillars were added again, as a saving grace.

The two storey building contains spacious drawing rooms on the ground floor and bedchambers on the first, while a central staircase rises to the upper floor. The jetty, originally a part of the building, is still used as a ferry ghat to embark on launches to reach Howrah and Shalimar on the opposite bank.

The building was built by the British rulers, as the official residence of Sir Lawrence Peel, the chief justice of India in the 1850s. After that, when Wajid Ali Shah, the dethroned and exiled Nawab of Oudh, was released from Fort William, he was allotted this building as his residence. During those days, the Garden Reach area was known as Muchikhola and the building was rented from the Maharaja of Burdwan, Chand Mehtab Bahadur, the owner of the property, for 500 Rupees a month.

Wajid Ali Shah moved into the building on13 May 1856 and eventually purchased it, along with two neighbouring buildings and renamed Sultan Khana, Asad Manzil and Murassa Manzil. However, as the Nawab used to live in the building with his harem of begums, along with hundreds of maids and was entertained by musicians, poets and beautiful dancers, the building popularly came to be known as Parikhana, the abode of the fairies.

Subsequently, after the death of the Nawab, the erstwhile Bengal Nagpur Railway purchased the house and named it BNR House. Sir TR Wynne, the first agent of BNR, lived in this house from 1897 to 1902, along with Lady Wynne, his children and grandchildren.

Unfortunately, from 1952 onwards, the heritage building had to serve as the Central Hospital of the Railways and since 1955, it also housed the Chief Medical Officer’s office. Finally, the magnificent building was restored to get back some of its past glory in 1958 and was converted as the official residence of the General Manager of the South Eastern Railway.