Fort & Kala Ghoda

Fort is named after a fort that no longer exists. The walls of Bombay Castle were completed on 1 June 1716 under Governor Charles Boone, and for a century and a half the English town lived inside them. Between 1862 and 1864, under Governor Bartle Frere, they were pulled down — the city had outgrown them, and the cleared land was worth more as building plots than as ramparts.

What went up on that land is the Bombay everyone photographs. The Gothic Revival row along the Oval — the High Court, the University, Rajabai Tower, the old Secretariat — was built in the decades after the walls came down. Flora Fountain went up in 1864 where the Church Gate of the fort had stood. Elphinstone Circle, now Horniman Circle Gardens, was laid out on the old Bombay Green at the centre.

Kala Ghoda — black horse — takes its name from an equestrian statue of Edward VII that stood at the crescent and was moved away in 1965. The name stayed. It is now the city’s art district: the Jehangir, the NGMA, the Museum, the galleries, and since 1999 the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival every February.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Bombay High Court 1862	Fort, beside the Oval Maidan	Established 1862. The present Gothic Revival building was put up between 1871 and 1878 to Col James Fuller’s design and first sat on 10 January 1879. A move to Bandra Kurla Complex has been announced.
Reserve Bank of India 1935	Mint Road, Fort	India’s central bank. The central office stands behind the Town Hall; monetary policy for the country is set from this street.
BSE Limited 1875	Dalal Street, Fort	Asia’s oldest stock exchange. Dalal Street is named for the brokers who traded under a banyan tree before the building existed.
University of Mumbai 1857	Fort campus, M. G. Road	One of India’s three oldest universities. The Rajabai Clock Tower and the Convocation Hall are on this campus.
Asiatic Society of Mumbai 1804	Town Hall, Horniman Circle	The city’s oldest learned society and reference library, housed in the Town Hall. The steps are one of the most filmed in Mumbai.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus 1888	Fort	A UNESCO World Heritage building and the headquarters of Central Railway. Still a working terminus, not a monument.
Mumbai Samachar 1822	Horniman Circle, Fort	India’s oldest continuously published newspaper, Gujarati, still produced from the red building on the circle.
Ballard Estate	east Fort, towards the docks	The shipping, freight-forwarding and customs district, built on reclaimed land. Edwardian, low-rise and quiet after six.
India Government Mint	Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Fort	Mint Road is named for it. Coin is still struck in Mumbai.
General Post Office	near CSMT, Fort	The city’s main post office, under a dome modelled on Bijapur’s Gol Gumbaz.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Jehangir Art Gallery 1952	Kala Ghoda	The city’s best-known gallery; free to enter.
National Gallery of Modern Art 1996	Kala Ghoda	Housed in the old Sir Cowasji Jehangir Hall.
Natesan’s Antiqarts 1930s	Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda	Bronzes, sculpture and antiquities.
Kitab Khana 2011	Somaiya Bhavan, Flora Fountain, Fort	A large independent bookshop with a cafe; the city’s main literary address.
Flora Fountain pavement booksellers	Flora Fountain, Fort	Secondhand and remaindered books; still worth browsing.
Furtados 1865	Kalbadevi and Fort	Musical instruments and sheet music; among the oldest music shops in India.

Name	Where	What it is known for
The Bombay Store 1905	Sir P. M. Road, Fort	Founded as the Bombay Swadeshi Co-operative Stores; Indian handicraft, home and gifting.
Akbarallys 1897	Fort and Chembur	One of the oldest department store names in the city.
Crawford Market 1869	Lokmanya Tilak Marg, Fort	Fruit, vegetables and imported goods under a Gothic roof; the bas-reliefs are by Lockwood Kipling.
Crawford Market cosmetics lanes	Fort	Imported and domestic cosmetics at market prices.
Ensemble 1987	Lion Gate, Kala Ghoda	India’s first multi-designer store; still the reference address for Indian couture.
Sabyasachi	Horniman Circle, Fort	The Kolkata house’s Mumbai flagship; bridal and ready-to-wear.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Britannia & Co. 1923	Wakefield House, Ballard Estate	Berry pulao made with Iranian barberries; the dish people cross the city for.
Jimmy Boy 1925	Vikas Building, Bank Street, Fort	Lagan nu bhonu — the full Parsi wedding feast — served every day.
Ideal Corner	Gunbow Street, Fort	A small Parsi lunch room in an office lane; dhansak on Wednesdays.
Cafe Military 1933	Ali Chambers, Medows Street, Fort	An Irani cafe of the plain unchanged kind; kheema pav, bhaji, beer.
Cafe Universal 1921	Fort, near CST	Marble tables, Continental menu, beer.
Yazdani Bakery & Restaurant 1953	Cawasji Patel Street, Fort	Wood-fired oven, bentwood chairs; brun maska, ginger biscuits, apple pie.
Ripon Club 1884	Ewart House, Fort	A members’ club whose Wednesday dhansak is part of the city’s food calendar.
Club dining rooms	Fort, Churchgate, Colaba	The Willingdon, the Bombay Gymkhana, the CCI and the Ripon Club all cook the old Continental menu.
Trishna 1965	Sai Baba Marg, Kala Ghoda	Coastal and Mangalorean seafood; the butter garlic crab is what it is known for worldwide.
Khyber 1958	Kala Ghoda	North-West Frontier cooking in an art-filled room; one of the grand old Mumbai restaurants.
Apoorva	Vasta House, Fort	Mangalorean seafood in a plain upstairs room; crab, prawn gassi, neer dosa.
Mahesh Lunch Home 1977	Cowasji Patel Street, Fort	Mangalorean coastal; crab, Bombay duck, prawn koliwada.
Hotel Deluxe	Fort	Malabar and Kerala cooking; parotta, fish curry, biryani.
Anand Bhavan	Fort	South Indian vegetarian near the offices.
Fort Kerala canteens	Fort and Ballard Estate	Lunch canteens feeding the office crowd, unlisted and cheap.
Goan and Mangalorean canteens	Fort, Dhobi Talao	Small lunch rooms serving the Catholic office population.
Chetana 1946	Kala Ghoda	Gujarati and Rajasthani thali with a bookshop and craft store attached.
Bhagat Tarachand 1892	Kalbadevi and Fort	Punjabi and Sindhi food in the market district; plain room, large portions.
Flora Restaurant	Fort	Everyday Indian-Chinese for the Fort office lunch trade.
Aaram Vada Pav 1939	Capital Cinema Building, opposite CSMT, Fort	One of the oldest vada pav shops in Mumbai; no turmeric in the batter.
Cannon Pav Bhaji 1980s	opposite CSMT, Fort	A pavement stall beside the station; fast, cheap, consistently good.
Badshah Cold Drinks 1905	opposite Crawford Market, Fort	The falooda shop across from the market, over a century old.
Kala Ghoda and Fort carts	Fort	Sandwich and vada pav carts serving the offices.
La Folie 2014	Kala Ghoda	Chocolate and entremet work of a standard rare in India.

Worth knowing

• Fort empties at the weekend. It is an office district first.
• The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival runs for nine days every February and the whole district closes to traffic.
• Several Parsi lunch rooms serve lunch only and shut by four.
• CSMT, Churchgate and Fort are all within walking distance of each other.
• The Gothic row along the Oval and the Victorian and Art Deco ensemble are on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
• Crawford Market is a bargaining market; the first price is not the price.

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