Bombay Then and Mumbai Now

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f acing p age: The 2.4-kilometre Kutb-e-Konkan Makhdum Ali

ABOVe: The face of Mumbai’s oldest Muslim neighbourhoods

Mahimi flyover runs over Mohammed Ali Road between JJ Hospital and Crawford Market, soaring on top of the city’s historical districts.

Among these is Bhendi Bazaar, cradle of the Bhendi Bazaar gharana, the city’s only homegrown musical tradition.

changed drastically after the completion of the Kutb-e-Konkan Makhdum Ali Mahimi flyover in 2002, which destroyed views like these forever. It also weakened the prospects of some of the small businessmen in its shadows, as many traditional customers now zoom by overhead to stores in more accessible areas.

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10/5/09 12:07:48 PM

This view taken by an unknown photographer around 1877 from Watson’s Hotel looks over the Convocation Hall of the University of Bombay at the left and at the right the University Library and Clocktower (completed in 1878; here shrouded in scaffolding). Behind them are the Arabian Sea and Back Bay. The Convocation Hall was begun in 1869 and completed in 1874, to a design by Sir George Gilbert Scott working from London and using a florid French-Gothic style. Earlier known as the Senate House, it was funded by the Parsi philanthropist, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney and the library and clock tower by Premchand Roychand, the leading Hindu banker and ‘Cotton King’ of the day, who named it Rajabai Tower, in memory of his mother.

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9/24/09 5:07:56 PM

Completed in 1835, the Christ Church in Byculla has a Greek Doric portico constructed from columns shipped from England. They were originally intended for the Town Hall but when they arrived in Bombay they were considered too large to be used there.

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9/24/09 5:03:41 PM

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9/24/09 5:07:37 PM

Facing Page: In the foreground to the right is Bombay’s grand

Above: The centre of exclusivity and privilege, in the final decades of

nineteenth-century tribute to the Victorian style in the shape of Victoria Terminus, then also known as the Great Indian Peninsula Terminus and Offices. On the left is the white-domed Municipal Office with a part of the Esplanade on the right. Alexandra Dock can be seen replete with ships beyond.

British rule, was the Bombay Yacht Club, seen in the centre foreground of this bird’s eye view. Founded in 1846, the club received royal patronage and evoked keen interest in sailing in the rest of the country. In the background can be seen the incomplete sea wall of the Back Bay reclamation.

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9/24/09 5:04:08 PM

A 1937 view from the harbour of the Apollo Bunder locality encompassing the Gateway to India, built in commemoration of the visit of the King and Queen to India in 1911 for the Coronation Durbar in Delhi, and the French chateau-inspired grand Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, built in 1903 by Jamsedji Tata, a successful Parsi merchant. The magnificent hotel – which boasted of American fans, Turkish baths, German elevators and English butlers and has a massive capacity of 565 rooms – was used as a hospital during the First World War. In recent times, it was one of the key targets of the terrorist attacks launched on Bombay on 26 November 2008.

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