OUR GOLDEN BOMBAY....

The following pictures of old Bombay are very special.  Some of them belong to the 17th century, some 250 years old. From these pictures we can trace the growth of Bombay City as we know today in our minds.  It seems that these pictures are from some Parsee Archives.

OUR GOLDEN Olden Bombay. Hope you enjoy Bombay (Mumbai) of yester-years, observe the population at that time. THESE PICTURES ARE CLASSIC SHOWING PLACES AND SIGHTS IN BOMBAY AS IT EXISTED OVER A CENTURY AGO. View of Bombay from Malabar Hill, with the Island of Caranjah and part of the Indian Continent in the distance. Bombaja Fort, Bombay, 1700 Malabar Hill and the Parsee Towers of Silence, or Doongarwadi. Khan Bahadur Dustorjee Nosherwanjee Parsee, High Priest of the Deccan, 1871. Portrait of a group of Parsee ladies, 1853. Walkeshwar, Malabar Point, 1860. Bombay Central station exterior. ​ Peak hour at Bombay Central station. One can see at least six persons in the main hall and ghostly traces of two more. Bullock-hauled train of the Gaekwar of Baroda, 1863. The very first trains were driven these unfortunate animals. BB&CI (Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway) steam engine. Old AC coaches being cooled with ice. ​ Gol Deval, the city's oldest shrine dedicated to Shiva, pre 1900. ‘Khada Parsee’ (The Standing Parsee) is the almost 40 feet tall and 150 year old cast iron and bronze statue of Shet Cursetjee Manockjee. It was built in the 1860s by his youngest son Manockjee Cursetjee for almost 100,000 rupees. Manockjee, known as a reformer in education sector, is responsible for founding one of the first schools for girls in Mumbai in 1863, now called Alexandra Girls' English Institution, in South Bombay. ​ Group of Parsee pupils and masters in class at the Elphinstone High School,1875. Sir Dinshaw Manackjee Petit Hospital, now known as Parsi General Hospital. Victoria Terminus, now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Apollo Bunder, before the famed Gateway of India was built. Colaba Reclamation from Wodehouse Bridge. To the left is seen the railway line that ran all the way up to Colaba after Churchgate. View from Colaba Reclamation, with Rajabai Tower in the distance. Once upon a time, it was that close to the sea. A local steam train travelling towards Backbay from the Colaba Terminus, 1910. The Majestic Hotel and Waterloo Mansions, Bombay. Currently, Amdar Nivas, where Sahakari Bhandar is located. Royal Alfred Sailors Home c 1900, now the Maharashtra State Police HQ. The Prince of Wales Museum, now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS).​ Elphinstone College and the David Sassoon Library, Kala Ghoda. Watson's Hotel, now known as Esplanade Mansion, stands tall but almost dilapidated at Kala Ghoda now. But, look at this hotel in its prime - what views of Bombay Harbour! This photo is from the 1880s; the only other building at that time in the area was the Sailors' Home (now Maharashtra State Police HQ) in the distance. The wide road you see is the Esplanade; and hence the name of the hotel. The patch of land on the right of the photo, by the sea is where the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers eventually came up - but that was not until 1903. Before that, for more than 30 years, Watsons Hotel was the numero uno establishment in the city. Mark Twain stayed here; Kipling wrote about it, and the earliest screening of the Cinematographe in India by the Lumiere Brothers was in this hotel (just one week after it was first screened in Paris). BEST double-decker tram, 1944. BEST double-decker tram, 1956. ​ Cricket players in uniform with their cricket bats. ​The editor's room, Times of India. The ancient jute fan was pulled via a long rope by a person sitting outside the room. The Bombay University buildings with Rajabai Tower still under construction. ​ The Bombay Municipal Building c 1900. The Bombay High Court. Flora Fountain with the Central Telegraph Office in the background. The CTO was the General Post Office till the early 1900s. The Bombay Green, 1862. The Bombay Town Hall with the Bombay Green Ground, as seen from the top of St. Thomas Cathedral, c 1850. Sailing ships can be seen in the harbour in the background. Town Hall, Asiatic Library. Bullock-drawn road roller. ​ Elphinstone Circle (now Horniman Circle), c 1827. Palkhis (taxis) waiting for customers in the business area of Fort, 1800s. Elphinstone Circle (now Horniman Circle) and Garden Gate with the St. Thomas Church in the background. Can you imagine the sea right outside Churchgate station? You can see the Railway Headquarters (next to Churchgate at present) on the left, the High Court in the middle and Mumbai University (Rajabai Tower to the right). Notice the steam hauled passenger train in the right bottom corner. In those days the trains used to go up to Colaba and the line used to hug the coastline. Churchgate Station being renovated, c 1900 Churchgate Station, c 1920. Churchgate station, which was built in 1870, is named after the street leading out of this gate. During the eighteenth and up to the mid-nineteenth century, Bombay was a walled city. The city walls had three gates, and Church Gate, named after St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai was one of them. The gate was situated near the present day location of Flora Fountain. In the mid-nineteenth century, the city walls were torn down to aid in the expansion program. Street in Fort, c 1860. The Fort Gate, seen at the far end, was similar to the Church Gate. Scotch Church, the courthouse, and entrance to the dockyard. This is the church opposite the Lion's Gate on the way towards the Asiatic library from Regal Cinema.