加尔各答黑洞是座法国于1756年6月间，在孟加拉仓促创建，用来监禁英国俘虏的场所，是威廉堡一间环境极为恶劣普通小土牢，面积只有14乘18英呎见方 (4.3 × 5.5 m)。1756年6月20日，监禁于此的英国人与印度佣兵120余人均窒息身亡，引起了国际争论。该事件，亦为英法争夺印度半岛殖民利益，发生的纠纷争战中，著名的历史事件之一。

因为此事件，黑洞成为牢房的代名词。不过根据史学家后来研究，该事件死亡人数数目仍有争议。在如此狭小的空间是否能容纳140余名战俘一直受到后世学者的质疑。

Fort William

Fort William (Kolkata)

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in the old Fort William in Calcutta, India, where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, held British prisoners of war after the capture of the fort on 20 June 1756.

One of the prisoners, John Zephaniah Holwell, claimed that following the fall of the fort, British and Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians were held overnight in conditions so cramped that many died from suffocation, heat exhaustion and crushing. He claimed that 123 prisoners died out of 146 held. However, the precise number of deaths, and the accuracy of Holwell's claims, have been the subject of controversy.