Alipore Jail Museum

For over a century this was Alipore Central Jail, built in 1906 and closed in 2019; since 2022 the cells are open to anyone who walks in. These corridors held Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, C.R. Das and B.C. Roy, and the museum leaves them plain: bare walls, iron doors, the gallows and the martyrs' memorial standing where they always stood. An evening light-and-sound show fills the yard after dark. Tuesday to Sunday from midday, entry around ₹30, two to three hours is a fair allowance.

Independence history told in the place it happened, rather than behind glass