The moment one hears the word “Dead Letter,” the first thing that comes to their mind would be a dark, dingy place where the letters are stored, which originally might have belonged to someone who is at present no more, to be precise, “dead”. The Dead Letter Office located in Dalhousie Square, Kolkata, is rather a common department within the postal services of India. In fact, there were several Dead Letter Offices across the British Empire.
While researching for this blog, what I came across was how important and how much of a necessity this department was within the postal service, especially in undivided India. The Dead Letter Office in Calcutta (Kolkata) has an extended history, as it was originally the first Central Telegraph Office. During WWII, it was one of the sought-after targets of the Japanese air force to break the communication.
What Was The Need Of A Dead Letter Office?
We will only concentrate on the history of the Dead Letter Office of Calcutta (Kolkata) here, and the reason why this was set up goes back to the Act XVII of 1837. In the section 25 to 27, we find the mention of the Dead Letter Office. Any letters or parcels that were unable to be delivered across any post office for three months were required to be sent back to the General Post Office. Once the list of such returned documents was published in a Gazette, and after eighteen months, the Post Master General had the authority to open such parcels, and if any valuables were found, then those were transferred to the government treasury.
After twelve months, if no one claims or presents themselves as the intended recipient of the parcel or letter, then the Post Master General has the right to destroy the materials.
For India, the main dilemma was the numerous regional languages. If we talk about the post offices in and around Calcutta, they were also dealing with letters which had addresses written in Bengali, Hindi, or Urdu; a postman cannot be expected to know all three native languages plus English. Add to that, except for the white town, which had mainly the English residents having proper house numbers, most of the city did not have proper house numbers.
It was common for a postman to go to a neighborhood and ask for help from the locals, trying to figure out who the letter or parcel might be intended for. If the letter or parcel had the address in a language not understood by the postman, then the struggle was amplified. And we are not even discussing the cursive handwriting, which was mostly used when writing English, something that I will also have difficulty reading.
Most of the posts back then were directly addressed to a person, and at the max would have the locality mentioned. The postman had to go to that location and ask the locals to try to figure out where that person might reside.
If by any chance the postman was unsuccessful in delivering, then it was returned to the Dead Letter Office. These were not returned to the General Post Office building since there were space constraints and the GPO was mainly used to carry out other important post-related activities.
If you look up on a map, then you will surely notice that the General Post Office (GPO) is located very near to the Dead Letter Office, thus it made sense to have them sorted out at a bigger facility.
There were people employed at the Dead Letter Office who would be fluent in most of the common languages or correspondence, and would try to decipher the actual recipient details, and would try their best to get the posts delivered.
Even after that, if the postal items failed to get delivered, then they would follow the rules of the book and take appropriate action as per the postal acts.
Another interesting function of the Dead Letter Office was to hold on to letters and parcels that were underpaid by the sender. This meant the recipient had to pay the difference plus additional charges, and often it was seen that the local population did not have the amount ready in hand and would request the postman to keep it until the fund is arranged. This led the post office to deposit the letters and parcels in the Dead Letter Office and give the recipient time to pay the money and then collect the package.
Central Telegraph Office (Dead Letter Office)
Electric Telegraph communications in India, and to be precise, in Calcutta was first established between Calcutta and Diamond Harbor in the year 1851, and back then, the Calcutta station was located at Chandpal Ghat. The Electric Telegraph Office in the city was located on the north-east side of St. John’s Church. At the moment, this place is still connected with the postal system as the Council House Street Sub Post Office. Initially, telegraph communication replaced the semaphore communication system that was used between Diamond Harbor and Calcutta to relay information regarding passing ships.
When the electric telegraph became a common method of relaying messages across the country, and the local population also started using it, making this one of the most important departments to have its own bigger dedicated building.
Only after shifting to Dalhousie Square, we get the Central Telegraph Office, which later became the Dead Letter Office.
If you look at old maps (1756), then this plot of land is drawn as a place with a small water body. Most probably a small pond, considering the larger Lal Dighi right in front.
At a later stage, the maps (1854) showed this place as a blank spot on the map and a bigger building next to it (north-west), mentioned as Government Dispensary (now the location of New Central Telegraph Office). During this time, the Electric Telegraph Office was in its original location near St. John’s Church, which was discussed earlier.
Construction of the Central Telegraph Office took place between 1868 and 1876 having three floors. While the ground floor and the first floor had similar design patterns, the second floor had a different design pattern. It almost looks like the second floor was constructed later, but in fact, it was built together.
This is the grand building that one can still see at the corner of Lal Dighi (Dalhousie Square) near the Old Court House Street and Mangoe Lane. The Currency Building is located right opposite this building. Luckily, this building still has its red and white coat of paint thanks to its heritage structure status.
One of the most iconic things about this grand heritage building is the 120-foot campanile clock tower with a missing clock. In fact, right after its construction, the clock was never installed, and if we see old photographs, we can see the same clock tower with the missing clock.
This type of building design is popularly known as Italianate architecture and was popular in Britain and across its empire. Something similar can be seen for the Goldburn Post Office located in New South Wales, Australia, built during the same time (1880 – 1881). The Forbes Post Office, located in New South Wales, Australia, also had the same design style.
Many buildings across the Indian subcontinent and Australia were being built in this style during this phase. Many post offices, railway station etc. can be seen having the same architectural style.
While researching this, I came across an old photograph of these two post offices in Australia after their construction, and both of them had a clock tower with a missing clock. Apparently, this was done to save the cost of construction, as a functional mechanical clock would have heavily increased the cost of the building during its construction phase. However, provision for a clock was made so that at a later stage it could be added. If you see the latest photographs of these post office then you can see both of them have a functioning clock. The Dead Letter Office in Kolkata still has the clock portion blocked out without a clock.
In 1914, the location where the Government Dispensary once stood (western side of Central Telegraph Office) was demolished, and a New Central Telegraph Office was constructed. This new building had four floors with its north side facing Lal Dighi and the west side facing Res Cross Place. In 1985, the Telegraph department was separated from the Postal department, forming the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) thus the New Central Telegraph Office later on became Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) in 2000.
This new building continued to act like the Telegraph Office until discontinuation of Telegraph in India on 14th of July 2013.
It is to be noted that the Dead Letter Office existed in the postal system even before the construction of this building. In the Directory and Almanac for 1879, a list of officers is provided who are part of the Dead Letter Office. There are no records of the exact place where it was located earlier.
It is highly possible that the Central Telegraph Office (old), after shifting to the new building, became the Dead Letter Office. There was a sudden increase in the usage of the Telegraph across the country, with multiple networks within the country as well as connecting other continents, to accommodate this, a larger purpose-built office was necessary, so the old office was shifted to the new location.
With time, the function of this department changed from trying to locate the person to deliver a mail to managing return letters. The function of individually locating a person so that mail could be delivered was no longer possible with the increase in the number of mail passing through the postal services. This department started mainly handling return letters thus became known as RLO (Return Letter Office). Letters and packages that could not be delivered were simply returned to the original sender.
Modifications To The Central Telegraph Office (Old)
In a report on the Administration of Bengal (1914-15), we can see a lot of alterations made to the building. Once such a change is made to the first floor of the building, which was converted to the Check Office of the Telegram Department. In order to achieve this, additional gangways and staircases were built.
Another interesting modification done to the ground floor of this building was to accommodate the parcel and sorting section, which one can still see happening till today. This required alterations and modifications of the original planned floors of this building.
This modification was done when the Central Telegraph Office had shifted to the new building. With the modifications, this building, especially on the ground floor, became the default Dead Letter Office.
For me, the most significant changes made during this modification phase were to the second floor to accommodate the Assistant Postmaster for whom residential quarters were built. This section is still very much present and now acts like a guest house for employees visiting the city, or is used as a transit guest house.
This section of the building on the second floor was built in English style, and one of the most unique features was the presence of a fireplace in each room.
The staircases are also large and spacious, something which you normally do not see in other postal buildings like the GPO located nearby.
This building is still used as a Return Letter Office and for processing parcels. Hopefully, unlike the telegraph, we don’t see the cessation of the postal services with the easy availability of smartphones. I just wish that the tower, which is still missing a clock, would one day get its own clock.
Location Of The Dead Letter Office On The Map
Resources
Special thanks to:- Department of Post – West Bengal Circle & India Post
George Newnes Ltd
Historic Scotland Foundation
Johnston and Hoffmann
The Calcutta Gazette
Records Of The Bengal Government – No.7 (1852)
Directory And Almanac For (1879)
Directory And Almanac For (1895)
Report On Administration Of Bengal (1914-15)
Report Of The Commissioners For Post Office Enquiry 1851
The Post Office And Its Story By Edward Bennett
British Library
Museums of History NSW
The Times of India
Other Blogs On Dalhousie
Standard Life Assurance Building
General Post Office (GPO) Kolkata
Kolkata Port Trust Maritime Heritage Centre
Kolkata Dalhousie Heritage Walk
Reserve Bank of India Museum, Kolkata
Metcalfe Hall Kolkata