A City emerges

The building of the Great Breach between Worli and Bombay at Mahalaxmi in the 18th century, together with the completion of the Sion causeway in 1805 and Colaba Causeway in 1838, made huge swaths of land available for habitation that had previously been flooded at high tide. Temples, mosques, agiaries, churches, bazaars, organic street patterns all coalesced in a vibrant world around Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi, Kamathipura and Market that was far removed from that which was evolving on the southern islands of Bombay.

Rousselet's description of Bombay

The French traveller, Louis Rousselet, who came to Bombay in the 1860s, gives a picturesque description of the scenes he witnessed in the bazaars that lay beyond the Esplanade (where Crawford Market now stands) in India and its Native Princes: “On entering its huge bazaars for the first time, one is immediately deafened by the din that prevails and half suffocated by the smells that impregnate the atmosphere. A world of peoples and races, of perfectly distinct types and costumes are crowded together in the streets of this capital, which supplies the products of Europe to two-thirds of India. Beside the indigenous races which still present such varieties, we see the Persian, with his high cap of Astrakan; the Arab in his biblical costume; the Tomali Negro, with fine, intelligent features; the Chinese, the Burmese and the Malay.”

In complete contrast to the congestion as well as the architecture of the inner-city bazaar areas, were the prosperous localities of Mazagaon, Byculla, Bandra and Parel. The wealthy built spacious villas and mansions here that remain to this day, dwarfed by subsequent developments. By the 1850s, Bombay was a mixture of cultures and was already becoming distinct from other colonial or traditional urban settlements in India. It was quickly acquiring a cosmopolitan spirit and its ‘stable’ population was fast increasing. The first official census of 1864 recorded a population of 816,562. Bombay’s transformation from a trading town into a fledgling industrial and manufacturing centre began quite unobtrusively in 1854 when the first chimney stack spewed black smoke onto the town’s skyline.

First mill

The first mill was the Bombay Spinning & Weaving Company’s cotton mill at Tardeo in central Bombay. The Sepoy Uprising of 1857 hardly touched Bombay. It’s horrifying aftermath, however, resulted in the Crown retrieving administrative control over India after almost two centuries of East India Company rule. India was now viewed as a crucial lynchpin safeguarding British overseas imperialistic designs and interests, and Bombay was the crucial connection between India and the larger global trade network. Two able and far-sighted Governors of this period had an impact on the city. Lord Elphinstone, Governor 1853 – 1860, introduced the Vihar Water Works, to ensure a plentiful supply of potable water to the town. Elphinstone also opened the first suburban railway in Bombay – built by Acts of the British Parliament by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.

The first 21 miles of track was between Bombay and Thana, and this new technology became the crucial infrastructure for the growth of Bombay. Sir Bartle Frere, Governor from 1862 to 1867 took the momentous and prudent decision to completely demolish the fort walls and restructure the town. Flora Fountain was built in tribute to Frere – the maker of modern Bombay. Elphinstone Cirlcle (now Horniman) and Victoria Terminus - open to the public on January 1st 1882 – are outstanding examples of the new urban design of south Bombay. VT came to be considered one of the finest stations in the world and, next to the Taj Mahal, the most photographed monument in the country. Architecture during this period was given impetus by George Wittet, who came to India in 1904.

Amongst the imposing buildings designed by Wittet were the Prince of Wales Museum, the Institute of Science, Gateway of India – built to commemorate the visit of George V in 1911 as the first British monarch to set foot on Indian soil -, the King Edward memorial Hospital and the Ballard Estate. Wittet transformed the expression and style of the public architecture of the city. His buildings carried an incredibly urbane response to the context and were sensitive to the existing design qualities of Bombay. In terms of increasing industry, by 1900, there were an astonishing 136 mills in Bombay. The most evident change in the composition of the population was a wave of poverty-stricken Maharashtrian peasants who came to the city for jobs in the textile mills and docks.

The dreaded Bubonic plague

The sudden growth in the population led to overcrowding and a scarcity in city services like water supply and sanitation. Such unsanitary conditions led to an outbreak of the dreaded Bubonic plague in the 1890s. (One para to b added) In an effort to counteract the increasingly crowded metropolis, the Improvement Trust, Port Trust, Municipal Corporation and Development Directorate initiated several schemes to reclaim land from the sea. The massive Sewri-Mazagaon reclamation in 1908 provided an additional 583 acres of land and later reclamations at Wadala, Tank Bunder and Colaba provided another 310 acres.

The most notorious scheme was the Back Bay Reclamation and was riddled with controversy from the start. The initial plan to reclaim 1500 acres of land was taken over by the Development Directorate, who scaled down the reclamation to 1145 acres between Colaba and Backbay. However, a series of delays and losses, added to the 1920s depression stifled the project. In 1926 it was estimated that the work would not be finished for another 20 years, at four times the initial cost. The Backbay Enquiry Committee was set up and soon uncovered financial irregularities, corruption and inadequate planning. Lloyd’s Folly – as it became known after the Governor at the time – was eventually completed in 1929. 439.6 acres were reclaimed.

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