Heritage Walks Of Mumbai
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walk around the heritage monuments of Mumbai will connect you with messages from the past. For tourists or guests who just have a day or two at their disposal must pick their exploration path careful. The Gateway of India is the best place to start your journey. This honey colored structure constructed in 1924 is a striking combination of Indian, British and Mughal architecture. For here you may wander past the red domes of the old Taj Mahal Hotel en route to the Yacht Club.A little later you will find yourself passing Apollo Bunder along Colaba Causeway. Here you will find a 1930 built self- sufficient society for the Parsi Community, complete with its Agairy or fire temple located at one end of the garden. Further on you will drift past the intriguing Electric House, the Methodist Church and the Mangalore tiled Colaba Police station before you come across the Prince of Wales Museum constructed way back in 1914.
As you walk along the pavements you will see the Jehangir Art Gallery. Here you will find road-side artist churning out stretches instantly at a cost. The distinct styles and shapes of the columns and arches of Elphinstone College, the Army and navy building, David Sassoon library and the Esplanade mansion across the road have their own unique characteristic features.
Make your way to Eros Cinema, which by itself is a landmark to view the Western railway Office which is a blend of the Gothic and Indian type of architecture. A little beyond the cinema you will arrive at a row of Art Deco buildings build in the 1930’s.
Move on to see the remarkably arched teakwood ceiling and the stained glass windows of the University library which can be appreciated only by architects and researchers. Leave this library and the 280 ft high Rajabai Clock Tower for another library at Horniman Circle, the Asiatic Library – a milk white neo-classical building which houses an original handwritten manuscript of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Walking past the Fort area, whether past the Gothic station of Victoria Terminus or by the stone structure of Mani Bhavan, generates a feeling of space and grandeur.
Although this prime location of Mumbai city has many heritage buildings constructed in the Neo-Gothic style of the 1880’s and the Art deco style of the 1930’s, people living and commuting to this part of the city for work have no time to stop and take a look at the Minton tiling, the grand central staircases, the open galleries of the building. People in Mumbai are always in a rush to catch their train to get home and to sleep after a tired day of work and to work the next day. Their diminishing energy hardly lets them, appreciate the magnificence of this place.