Did you know (Part 2)

Hope you all enjoyed the first part of my discoveries into Mumbai’s history and are ready for some more interesting bites of information!! Did you know….

The Victoria Terminus was designed by a British architect and took 10 years to complete. There are a number of animals carved into the facade of the building and it also has a lion (representing England) and a tiger (representing India) at the gate including a lot of flora and fauna on the facade. This was because even though the architect was British, the workers, laborers and artists were all Indian. It was named "Victoria Terminus" in honour of the Queen and Empress Victoria.

The Victoria Terminus Station

The lady that stands on top of the station is not Queen Victoria but the Lady of Progress holding a torch pointing upwards in her right hand and a spoked wheel in her left hand.

The Lady of Progress

The Ambassador Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Mumbai. It has a revolving restaurant that is called the “Pearl of the Orient”. Each revolution takes 90 minutes.

Ambassador Hotel

The Bombay High Court was built in the 1800s. To the west of the central tower are two octagonal towers. The statues of the Lady of Justice and the Lady of Mercy are atop this building – have you ever noticed them there???

Lady of Justice

Lady of Mercy

The Rajabai Tower was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, an English architect. He modeled on Big Ben, in London. It is said that he never once came to Mumbai to see his creation while it was being made! It was started March 1, 1869 and construction lasted 9 years. The total cost of construction came to Rs. 2 lakhs which was paid by Premchand Roychand, a prosperous broker who founded the Bombay Stock Exchange on the condition that the tower be named after his mother Rajabai.

Rajabai Tower

All the buildings in the University of Mumbai’s premises have beautiful stained glasses. In fact it has the highest collection of stained glass windows. In the Convention Hall of the University of Mumbai building there is a huge circular window (24-feet in diameter), also known as the Rose Window which has a design of the Zodiac signs.

The Flora Fountain was originally to be named after Sir Bartle Frère, the Governor of Bombay at the time, whose efforts to improve civic sanitation and the urban space requirements of the growing city had resulted in many of the great public buildings of Mumbai. However, the name was changed before the fountain was unveiled as Flora Fountain, named after the Goddess Flora, a Roman Goddess of flowers and the season of spring.

Flora Fountain

David Sasson, a Jewish businessman, he traded with China. He grew as a business man and built one of the largest and most beautiful synagogues of India, the Magen David Synagogue at Byculla, Bombay. He also constructed the Sassoon Dock at Colaba, one of the largest docks ever built in Bombay among other institutions.

David Sasson Library

Maybe you would all know this one... The Taj Mahal hotel was built because Jamsedji Tata decided to build the hotel after he was refused entry to one of the city's grand hotels of the time, Watson's Hotel, as it was restricted to "whites only". And yes, do you know that the hotel has been built in the opposite direction than the original architectural plans??

The Taj Mahal Hotel

Well, I hope that you have enjoyed the little tit-bits about Bombay - the original Mumbai!!!