St Paul’s Cathedral Mission College, popularly known as St Paul’s College, is located at 33/1 Amherst Street (Renamed Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani), very near to College Street, known as the academic hub of the city, adorned with the University of Calcutta, Presidency College, Hare School, Hindu School and other notable academic institutions in the adjoining area. Established in 1865, the college is the brainchild of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who felt it was necessary to establish First Arts and Undergraduate Colleges in the city, through which an increasing number of students could be prepared for the Post Graduation degree courses.

Accordingly, St Paul’s Cathedral Mission College started operating on 25 January1865, in the rented premises of 25 Sookeas Street (now Kailash Bose Street) and later shifted to 22 Mirzapur Street (now Surya Sen Street). Finally, it shifted and settled at the present location of 33/1 Amherst Street (Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani) in the month of July 1908, which is just opposite to the Vishudhanand Saraswati Marwari Hospital and very near to the Holy Trinity Church. However, the college got its present name in 1914.

The college, one of the oldest academic institutions of the city that started its journey only with 193 students and 6 teachers, now has a total strength of over 1500 students, affiliated with11 Honours Courses and some general ones. After the Church Missionary Society (CMS) left in 1847, the responsibility of the college came under the Calcutta Diocesan Trust Association (Private) on behalf of the Diocese of Calcutta. Though the college is affiliated with the University of Calcutta since 1865, it received the first affiliation at the Honours standard only in 1915 in English.

Affiliation of other subjects in the other Humanities group, namely History and Philosophy, followed in 1917, while green signal given to Economics in 1929.The College started to teach different Pure Science subjects in the Intermediate Standard since 1921and only during the 1950s, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry received affiliation at the Honours level. Other comparatively new subjects like Political Science, Microbiology, Physiology, Zoology and Sociology were introduced in 2003-04, while Honours course in Hindi began in the 2009-10 session.

Situated in a crowded locality, the lush green campus of the College with a touch of serene tranquility is like a green oasis in a dry desert. A good part of the city’s heritage is captured like a photograph in the college campus, in which the oldest main building is over a hundred years old. The main building, consisting of two separate blocks, is connected to each other with the help of a suspended bridge.

While the office and the classrooms occupy the entire eastern block, ground floor of the western block houses the spacious students’ common room, equipped with an inbuilt stage. The grand library of the College occupies the upper floor of the western block. Originally, the College had two hostels for the students. The huge Jani Ali hostel, facing the main entrance, stands in the western part of the campus, while the St David’s hostel occupied the northern part of the neatly maintained college ground. Apart from the College building, classes of different subjects of Humanity were also held in the small two-storey building of the pavilion, situated on the western side of the lush green ground.

However, that was the picture of the St Paul’s College, at least till the 1960s. Unfortunately, the present picture is completely different, as it represents a bleak story of negligence, indifference and apathetic attitude of the authority. Today, the College does not have any hostel facility for the students. To meet the need of the day, the massive Jani Ali Hostel has become a new block of the college. St David Hostel, probably the only students’ hostel in Calcutta equipped with a mini swimming pool, is lost forever, reportedly sold out and is now outside the northern boundary of the College.

The big lush green ground is unkempt or not properly maintained. The beautiful tennis lawn, situated between the main building and the pathway, has lost its old charm, probably long ago, and is now full of long grass, tall bushes and other unwanted vegetations. Placed on the left of the approach, the beautiful building of the staff quarter, that once housed the Principal, along with some other senior teachers of the college, is currently deserted, dilapidated and presents a tragic and a desolate image of its glorious past.