Metcalfe Hall

A Greek temple on the bank of the Hooghly, and most people walking the Dalhousie heritage district go straight past it. The neoclassical hall of 1844 carries Corinthian columns modelled on the Temple of the Winds in Athens, so tall that the portico looks a size too large for its street. The ASI restored the building and reopened it as an exhibition space; inside is a permanent gallery of rare maps, manuscripts and photographs tracing how the city changed. Twenty quiet minutes, easily folded into a walk.

Restored, free of crowds, and hiding a gallery of the city's oldest maps