Williamson Magor to shift HQ

Williamson Magor &Co will move out of Four Mangoe Lane, its corporate headquarters, bringing a 140-year historical relationship to an end.

Sources said the company was planning to let out the building and move to one of the bungalows in the south of Kolkata, as part of its cost-cutting drive.

The shifting would take place over eight months. Williamson Magor & Co, occupies one and a half floors of the ten-storeyed building complete with a penthouse on the ninth floor and a tea tasting room on the eighth.

But, there was more to Four Mangoe Lane than just being the corporate headquarters of the Williamson Magor group. The building had achieved an iconic status in the industry.

The tea business of the Khaitan group, which used to be one of the world's largest bulk tea producers in the world not so long ago, operated out of the building.

The offices of both Brij Mohan Khaitan and his younger son, Aditya Khaitan were at Four Mangoe Lane. The history of Four Mangoe Lane dates back to 1894 when Williamson Magor & Co shifted from 7 China Bazar to Four Mangoe Lane.

Originally known as Hampton Court, the premises was redeveloped through the mid 1960s. The then partners of Williamson Magor & Co, obtained a lease of the property for a period of four years on a monthly rental of Rs. 700.

This lease was renewed from time to time until 1918 when the property held in trust by the administrator general of Bengal, was bought by the company.

Over a decade later the city's municipal authorities embarked on a road re- naming exercise and decided to name Mangoe lane after freedom fighter and patriot Surendra Mohan Ghosh.

Williamson Magor chose not to give up the company's century old name. The company christened the office building Four Mangoe Lane.

However, the genesis of the name was the series of mango trees on either side of the lane.