Many heritage structures are found in Mumbai, India.
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Many heritage structures are found in Mumbai, India.
Mumbai consists of seven islands by the coast of Arabian Sea that are connected by bridges and land fill. It is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the business and financial capital of India. [1] Mumbai transferred from Portuguese to British rule as part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry to Charles II in 1661. It rose to become India's largest city, driven in large part by its status as a leading cotton trading market and shipping port.
Mumbai's history offers many heritage structures and historical precincts. Most are located in the south of Mumbai, as historically, access to the city was only through the port there. The southern tip of the city is home to the Fort precinct, the urban core of Mumbai during the colonial period that was once enclosed by fortified walls. Mumbai had 591 heritage structures registered as of 2012. These include buildings, archaeological sites, colonial, industrial, domestic architectural sites and public spaces. A consulting committee called "The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee" guides the process. All work related to heritage structures needs approval from this committee. Heritage structures are classified as Grade I, Grade IIA, Grade IIB or Grade III. Most of the structures were built in the British period. They are in the Victorian Neo Gothic architectural style, Indo-Saracenic Revival (Mulji Jetha Fountain) or Neoclassical styles.
The Elephanta Caves, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and The Victorian & Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai are recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Mumbai is home to a large number of Art Deco structures, with the largest count of buildings in this style after Miami. Many of these buildings are cinema halls, such as Eros Cinema and Regal Cinema. A string of Art Deco apartment buildings lines the city's waterfront promenade, Marine Drive.
Some Mumbai heritage structures have received Unesco awards. The Lal Chimney Compound received an award of distinction in the 2013 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards and the Royal Bombay Yacht Club Residential Chambers won an award of merit in the 2013 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards. [2]
Walking tours expose many residents and visitors to the structures. They are sponsored by the Mumbai Heritage Walks group, established in 1999. The group was established by city architects Abha Bahl and Brinda Gaitonde. Their aim is to "raise the awareness of the people of Mumbai and visitors, about the city’s architecture and heritage monuments. Personalized, educative and imaginative; the walking tours highlight the vast range of architectural styles, planning elements and ornamental details, tracing the social and cultural history of the city." [3]
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, (CSMVS) originally named Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is a museum in Mumbai (Bombay) which documents the history of India from prehistoric to modern times.
South Mumbai, colloquially SoBo from South Bombay in Anglo-Indian English, administratively the Mumbai City District, is the city centre and the southernmost precinct of Greater Bombay. It extends from Colaba to Mahim and Sion neighbourhoods, and comprises the city's main business localities, making it the wealthiest urban precinct in India. Property prices in South Mumbai are by far the highest in India and among the highest in the world.
Kala Ghoda is a crescent-shaped art district/neighborhood in Mumbai, India. It hosts several of the city's heritage buildings including museums, art galleries and educational institutions like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, the Jehangir Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, and The Arts Trust - Institute of Contemporary Indian Art.
A resident of Mumbai is called a Mumbaikar. People prefer to stay close to a railway station for easy access to the metropolis. Many city-dwellers lead a fast-paced life with very little time for other activities owing to a significant amount of time spent on daily commuting.
The Municipal Corporation Building, Mumbai, located in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India is a Grade IIA heritage building opposite to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus at the junction of Dadabhai Naoroji Road and Mahapalika Marg. It is also known as the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation Building, or BMC building for short.
The Ballard Estate business district is situated in the financial district of Fort. Located between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Fort in South Mumbai, it hosts the offices of shipping companies and the headquarters of the Mumbai Port Trust at the Port House. It has the Reliance Centre, many mid-priced hotels and a noted Irani cafe, Britannia.
Royal Opera House, more commonly known simply as Opera House in Mumbai, is India's only surviving opera house.
The Eros Cinema is an Art Deco style, now defunct, cinema theatre located in Cambata Building at Churchgate, Mumbai, India. It has a seating capacity of 1,204 people per show.
Dadabhai Naoroji Road (D.N.Road), a North–South commercial artery road, in the Fort business district in South Mumbai of Maharashtra, India, is the nerve centre of the city, starting from the Mahatma Phule Market ,linking Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, leads to the Hutatma Chowk at the southern end of the road. This entire stretch of the road is studded with Neo–Classical and Gothic Revival buildings and parks built in the 19th century, intermingled with modern office buildings and commercial establishments.
The architecture of Mumbai blends Gothic, Victorian, Art Deco, Indo-Saracenic & Contemporary architectural styles. Many buildings, structures and historical monuments remain from the colonial era. Mumbai, after Miami, has the second largest number of Art Deco buildings in the world.
Ballar Bunder Gatehouse is a Grade I Heritage structure that has been converted into a maritime museum, located at Ballard Estate in the old Fort area of Mumbai, India. It was built in 1920 to commemorate the realignment of the harbour and is located where Ballard Pier, a small pier once existed with an approach jetty at right angles to the pier. The building was among the five entries from the Mumbai for the 2009 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation. It is one of the stops on Special tour of Museums in the city, a tour organised by BEST and MTDC as well as the Naval Dockyard Heritage Walk, conducted by the Naval Dockyard on the first Sunday of every month.
Rahul Mehrotra is Founder Principal of architecture firm RMA Architects of Mumbai + Boston, and is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Awards are given with as the strategic purpose of UNESCO with in the region Asia Pacific. The objective is to motivate the protection of Cultural Heritage sites, which are initiated by any individual organization under private sector or institutional organization.
Maharashtra state in India is known for its Famous caves and cliffs. It is said that the varieties found in Maharashtra are wider than the caves and rock-cut architecture found in the rock cut areas of Egypt, Assyria, Persia and Greece. The Buddhist monks first started these caves in the 2nd century BC, in search of serene and peaceful environment for meditation, and they found these caves on the hillsides.
The Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Bombay is a collection of 19th-century Victorian Revival public and 20th-century Mumbai Art Deco private buildings in the Fort precinct of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. This ensemble was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018.
New Empire was a cinema hall in South Mumbai located in close proximity to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. It closed down on 21 March 2014 after being in existence for over a century due to persistent losses suffered by the owners.
Art Deco Mumbai (ADMT) is a public charitable trust that is actively involved in spreading awareness about Mumbai's Art Deco heritage since May 2016. It is a digital initiative that uses social media and a website to showcase the built heritage. The website is the only repository of information on Art Deco in Mumbai in the public domain.
The Art Deco in Mumbai, India style is a notable feature of the architecture of the city. It was used primarily for office buildings, residences and movie theaters, during a period when India was part of the British Empire. On 30 June 2018, an ensemble of such buildings were officially recognized as a World Heritage site by the UNESCO World Heritage committee held in Bahrain as the Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai.
Abha Narain Lambah is an Indian conservation architect whose eponymous architectural practice has restored several of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Ajanta Caves, Golconda Fort and Mahabodhi Temple, and Mumbai's Victorian buildings like the Crawford Market, Royal Opera House, Asiatic Society of Mumbai Town Hall and Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue.