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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Harry Hobbs arrived in Calcutta in 1883 as a 19-year-old trained in a London piano factory. He made his living tuning and repairing pianos, eventually establishing H Hobbs & Co Ltd, while recording the people, places and everyday encounters of the city across decades. His books are valuable first-person social records—not neutral surveys—so their stories are best read as Hobbs’s recollections, with their vividness and limitations kept in view.
Who was Harry Hobbs?
Hobbs was born in Islington, Middlesex, in 1864, to Henry Hobbs and Emily Holmes, according to Devasis Chattopadhyay’s 2024 account. After training in a London piano factory, he travelled to Calcutta in 1883. He remained there until his death in 1956, living in the city for roughly 73 years.
Hobbs’s own memoir, It Was Like This!, published in 1918, recalled his arrival and first lodging at number 5 Crooked Lane. As quoted by Scroll.in, he remembered feeling at home almost immediately: “For as long as I can remember, I had romantic ideas about India and always wanted to come here. I have often said that if there is any truth in the theory of a former existence, I was an Indian when on earth before, as I remember quite well, the day I landed in Calcutta walking into my windowless room in number 5 Crooked Lane, throwing my Port Said topee on the bed, and in a feeling of profound contentment saying – ‘This is all right!’ and I have some pleasure in adding that I have never once grumbled about the country since.” This is a passage attributed to the 1918 memoir in the Scroll excerpt.
How did a piano tuner become a chronicler of Calcutta?
Hobbs’s trade gave him a working life in the city, not simply the perspective of a passing visitor. After a posting in Burma from 1884 to 1887, he worked for Samuel Harraden’s Harold & Company. In 1893 he established his own firm, H Hobbs & Co Ltd, advertising piano imports, repairs and tuning. A second account by Live History India also describes his arrival, piano work and later chronicling of Calcutta.
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The Scroll account traces the firm through several central Calcutta addresses. Hobbs established it at 4 Esplanade Row East, which the account also identifies as his residence for much of his life. Later business locations included 9 Esplanade Row East, 21 Old Courthouse Street and 9 Old Courthouse Street; a workshop and warehouse were on Marquis Street. These locations offer a tangible thread through his working life, though the account does not establish present-day building occupancy or independently verify street-name changes.
What do Hobbs’s stories tell us about old Calcutta?
Hobbs wrote about business, travel, entertainment, social encounters and notable personalities. The result is a view of colonial-era life gathered from particular episodes and remembered exchanges, rather than a systematic history of the city. His long residence makes those observations valuable: they preserve details of how one working resident experienced a changing Calcutta over many years.
That first-person quality also calls for care. A colourful anecdote can illuminate the attitudes and social world Hobbs encountered, but it remains his account unless corroborated elsewhere. Readers should distinguish what he says he witnessed or heard from facts independently established about a person, event or building. The memoir’s perspective is part of its historical value, not a reason to treat every recollection as definitive.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where can you read about Harry Hobbs?
Chattopadhyay’s Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives places Hobbs among a wider group of historical subjects. Niyogi Books describes it as nine chronicles about nineteenth-century Kolkata. The 2024 Scroll.in article from which this account is excerpted provides a focused introduction to Hobbs’s life and business. Hobbs’s own It Was Like This! offers his recollections directly; current availability was not established by the cited accounts.
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