Chowringhee Road in Kolkata near Esplanade: Metropolitan Building Dinesh Metropolitan Building is the number 46/26 building on Chowringhee Road in Kolkata near Esplanade. Formerly known as the Whiteway Laidlaw department store, it was a famous department store in Calcutta during the British Rule in India. This neo-baroque emporium—with domes, a clock tower and arched recessed windows—exemplifies fashionable shopping during the British Raj in British India. The building was built in 1905. Post Independence Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. assumed ownership, so people know it more commonly as Metropolitan Building. Currently it is owned by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). A TO Z INDIA SEPTEMBER 2022 PAGE 26