Lower Parel

Lower Parel is the clearest thing in Mumbai: one industry replaced by another on exactly the same ground.

This was the centre of the cotton mill belt. Phoenix Mills, Kamala Mills, Todi Mills, Raghuvanshi Mills, Mathuradas Mills — the names are all still here, attached now to malls, office towers and restaurant compounds. The mills closed through the 1980s and 90s after the 1982 strike, and the land they sat on became the most valuable in the city.

High Street Phoenix opened on the Phoenix Mills land in the 2000s and Palladium beside it in 2008, which gave Mumbai its first luxury mall. Kamala Mills and Todi Mills filled with bars and offices. The chimneys are still standing in several compounds, kept because the rules required it, and the restaurant you are sitting in is usually inside a shed where looms ran.

It is worth knowing what it cost. The mill workers who lived in the chawls at Lalbaug and Parel did not get the land; most moved to the far suburbs or out of the city. The locality is wealthy now and the people who built it are not here.

Name	Where	What it is known for
High Street Phoenix 2000s	Lower Parel	Built on the Phoenix Mills land; the large mall at the centre of the locality.
Palladium 2008	High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel	The city’s first luxury mall; international fashion, beauty and accessories.
Raghuvanshi Mills studios	Lower Parel	A mill compound converted into designer and lifestyle showrooms.
Raghuvanshi and Kamala Mills showrooms	Lower Parel	Converted mill compounds full of design and lifestyle stores.
Mill-compound cafes	Kamala Mills, Raghuvanshi Mills, Lower Parel	Third-wave coffee and modern patisserie in converted mill sheds.
Lower Parel and Byculla art spaces	Lower Parel, Byculla	Gallery and studio spaces in converted industrial buildings.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Peninsula Business Park	Senapati Bapat Marg	One of the towers that replaced the mills; corporate offices, and a good part of the morning traffic on S. B. Marg.
One Indiabulls Centre	Senapati Bapat Marg	Offices on former Jupiter Mill land.
Kamala Mills	Lower Parel	Media houses, offices and restaurant floors in the old compound. The name now means the compound rather than the mill.
Raghuvanshi Mills	Lower Parel	Designer studios, showrooms and photographers’ floors in the old sheds.
Todi Mills	Lower Parel	Workspaces, studios and bar kitchens; the most intact set of mill sheds of the group.
Mathuradas Mills	Lower Parel	Offices and studios on the compound behind Phoenix.
Lower Parel station	Lower Parel	A suburban halt built for mill workers, now carrying an office crowd it was never sized for. The bridge west is the bottleneck.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Nature’s Basket Artisan Pantry 2023	Phoenix Palladium, Lower Parel	A large-format luxury grocery with a cheese room and charcuterie counter.
Shoppers Stop 1991	High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel	The Indian department store chain, listed and Mumbai-headquartered.
Westside 1998	Lower Parel and city-wide	The Trent (Tata) chain.
Lifestyle	Lower Parel, Mahalaxmi	The Landmark Group format.
Sephora	Palladium, Lower Parel	International beauty retail.
Nykaa Luxe	Lower Parel and city-wide	The Mumbai-founded beauty retailer’s physical stores.
Ethos Watch Boutiques	Palladium, Lower Parel	Multi-brand authorised Swiss watch retail.
Tanishq 1994	Lower Parel and city-wide	The Titan (Tata) jewellery chain.
Good Earth 1996	Raghuvanshi Mills, Lower Parel	Indian design in home, tableware and textiles.
Freedom Tree 2011	Lower Parel	Printed textiles, furniture and home accessories.
Living Liquidz 1996	Worli, Lower Parel and city-wide	The largest organised wine and spirits retail chain in the city.
Mall bookshops	High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel	Chain bookshops and stationery.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Cafe Zoe 2012	Mathuradas Mills, Lower Parel	European and Italian in a converted mill shed.
Yuuka 2015	The St. Regis, Lower Parel	Japanese with a Peruvian influence, on an upper floor with a city view.
Koko 2015	Lower Parel	Japanese and pan-Asian, bar-led, late.
Pa Pa Ya	Palladium, Lower Parel	Modern Asian across Thai, Japanese and Chinese lines.
Shizusan Shophouse & Bar	Palladium, Lower Parel	Pan-Chinese and Southeast Asian in a shophouse format.
Royal China	Lower Parel	Dim sum and Cantonese.
Mainland China	Worli and Lower Parel	The Speciality Restaurants chain; consistent Cantonese and Sichuan.
Rajdhani Thali 1960s	Lower Parel and city-wide	Reliable Gujarati and Rajasthani thali.
Mill-compound bar kitchens	Kamala Mills, Todi Mills	The densest concentration of bar kitchens in the city.
Pan-Asian rooms with Korean sections	Lower Parel, Worli	Korean dishes on mixed menus rather than dedicated kitchens.

Worth knowing

• Lower Parel is an office district on weekdays and a restaurant district at night.
• Parking is genuinely difficult; Lower Parel and Elphinstone Road stations are the sensible approach.
• The mill chimneys left standing in the compounds are protected, not decoration.
• Palladium is luxury and premium together; High Street Phoenix beside it is mainstream.
• The restaurant compounds at Kamala Mills and Todi Mills change tenants constantly; check before travelling for a particular place.
• Lalbaug and Parel, immediately south, are the same mill belt in its older form.

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