India · West Bengal
Where to Stay in Shrīrāmpur, West Bengal
Shrīrāmpur is a historic town on the Hooghly in West Bengal, India, once the Danish colony of Serampore.
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Where to stay in Shrīrāmpur
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Shrīrāmpur turns on the riverside. The streets by the Hooghly keep the church, the college, and the ghats within a walk, and staying by the river suits anyone here for the old town. The ghats fill in the cool evening.
Some rooms face straight onto the Hooghly. Out toward the newer town and the station, the streets run busier and wider. A room near the station trades the old lanes for the shops, the trains, and an easy way to Kolkata.
The flat delta opens past the edge. If you want the church and the ghats, stay by the river; if you want the trains, take a room near the station. Whichever street you pick, the Hooghly is never far.
About Shrīrāmpur
Shrīrāmpur is the old Danish town of Serampore.
What is Shrīrāmpur known for?
For nearly a century Denmark held this stretch of the Hooghly, and the town keeps a Danish church, a governor's house, and an old college by the river, for here the great Serampore Mission printed the Bible in the tongues of India. The river runs broad past the ghats. Denmark and mission mark the town.
What are the main landmarks in Shrīrāmpur?
Saint Olav's Church stands by the river at Shrīrāmpur. The old Danish church, white and pillared, rises near the ghats, the emblem of the town, from the colonial days. An old college holds the mission's memory.
Serampore College, founded by the missionaries, still teaches by the water, while the Danish governor's house and the riverside ghats mark the streets of the old town.
What is the history of Shrīrāmpur?
Shrīrāmpur was a Danish colony on the Hooghly. In the seventeen-hundreds Denmark set up a trading town here and named it Frederiksnagore, and it grew as a quiet port under the Danish flag, a haven on the river beside the great British lands. Then it became a city of print.
Three English missionaries, Carey, Marshman, and Ward, settled in the safety of Danish ground and set up a printing press, and from it poured the Bible in tongue after tongue of India. The mission changed learning in Bengal. The men of Serampore cast the first types for Bengali and many other scripts, printed grammars and newspapers, and founded a college that gave degrees, the first of its kind in the east.
In time the Danes sold the town. The British bought Serampore in the eighteen-forties, and the little colony faded into greater Calcutta, but its Danish church and its college still stand. The old buildings still line the river.
Shrīrāmpur keeps its Danish past on the Hooghly.
Where is Shrīrāmpur?
Shrīrāmpur lies on the Hooghly river in West Bengal, just north of Kolkata. The town sits on the west bank of the great river, in the flat green delta of Bengal, across the water from the temple town of Barrackpore. Palm groves ring the streets.
The wide river slides past the ghats.
What is the climate of Shrīrāmpur?
Shrīrāmpur lies deep in the hot, wet tropics. Long, steamy summers give way to the heavy rains of the monsoon, which soak the delta from summer into autumn, while the winters stay short and mild. Storms sweep the river in the monsoon.
The delta heat hangs heavy much of the year.
How do you get to Shrīrāmpur?
Shrīrāmpur lies on the Hooghly north of Kolkata in West Bengal. Trains on the main line run to it along the river from Kolkata, and roads follow the west bank, while ferries cross the water. Buses reach the delta towns around.
Most arrive by rail from Kolkata.
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Updated September 2026