Bengal Government acquired the property they erected an entirely new
facade of a totally different design from the original, built the
present long range of verandahs and Council chamber which they
completed in 1881-1882, and also threw out from the main block from
time to time the various annexes that we see abutting on to Lyons
Range.

[Illustration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Frontage of Writers'
Buildings from East to West.]

[Illustration: _Photo. by J & H._ Distant view of Writers' Buildings,
taken before the Dalhousie Institute was built.]

Of course most of us know that Writers' Buildings in the days of Clive
and Warren Hastings was the home and resting place of the young
civilians on their first arrival in Calcutta, and who were then
designated Writers, from which fact there appears little doubt the
place derives its name.

One of the very earliest street alterations and improvements that
comes to my recollection was in Canning Street, just at the junction
of Clive Row, on the space of ground extending from the latter for
some distance to the east, and north as far as the boundary wall of
Andrew Yule & Co.'s offices, leaving but a narrow strip of a lane
running parallel to the latter and affording access to China Bazaar on
the east and beyond. When I first came to Calcutta this space was
occupied by a very mediæval, ancient, and old-fashioned building
having a flagged, paved courtyard in front, surrounded by high brick
walls. It divided Canning Street into two distinct sections,
effectually obstructing through communication between east and west,