Anglican Church

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• Anglican Church, better known as the St. Thomas Church is the Church of Bangladesh. Built in 1819, it is one of the older churches in the region. The church premise was in an area of lush greeneries with the famous Bahadur Shah park in a stones throw distance on the south, Mahsinia Madrashah (present Kabi Nazrul College) in the back (east), and the most important commercial street connecting the old part of the city with the new- the north-south axial Nawabpur/Johnson Road to the west separating the area from the court, Bank, DC's office and Jagannaath College buildings across it. In fact the church overlooking the greens was a major focal of the city centre in the nineteenth century. Several Collectors of Dhaka were active in developing civic places in the city; they often engaged the Jail inmates to clear and prepare sites and erect structures. It is said that the convicts from Dhaka Jail gave their labour to build this church as well. The attraction of this building, built after the style of the prevalent contemporary Indian Churches, is a clock tower. The rectangular flat-roof steeple rises above the roof in two stages, having clearstory windows. The arches over the doorway and windows are of Gothic style while those of the main tower are pointed and four-centred. The roof used wooden battens on iron joists; the floor had used tiles. The delicate stone and brick works in this white plastered building are still as immaculate as it has been for nearly two centuries. Even most of the thick teak furniture, altar, and ablution bowl (for baptising) in marble are still unblemished and in good working condition. However, the open colonnades around two sides of the nave (central axial hall) were walled up later. Recently the church authority has undertaken a massive renovation of the building.
• The description was provided by Md. Ashik Bhuiyan