A secular milestone for Mumbai

Round and about the Fort

The Bazaar Gate Walk ended up making one feel like a non-Indian tourist in Mumbai, for the right and wrong reasons

From the list of walks on offer by Raconteur Walks (Bandra Walk and Apollo Gate Walk), the Bazaar Gate Walk sounded the most interesting, especially since we weren't familiar with the origins and history of the area. So, we signed up in anticipation of a heady historic walk. Bazaar Gate was called the ‘Black Town' by our colonial rulers to define the Indian neighbourhood.

This epitaph inside St Thomas Cathedral honours former Governor Jonathon Duncan who was respectful to the city's Indian population, during his rein. The statue of a Brahmin inside a church offers great insight into the city's early connect with secularism. PIC/DHARA VORA

After a brief history of the origins of Mumbai - from the seven islands to its current form - we began our walk at the steps of the Town Hall. Our guide, an engineer-turned-city history buff, Saurabh Dhulap, informed us that the area, now occupied by the Horniman Circle Gardens (earlier called Elphinstone Circle) served as a centre for trade, commerce and as a meeting point. The rise, and subsequent fall in cotton trade resulted in rotting cotton bales that marred the beauty of the city centre and it was shifted to Cotton Green. We walked around the circle spotting the Mumbai Samachar building, home to Asia's oldest newspaper.

Our favourite stop was St Thomas' Cathedral, the city's first Anglican church. Its restoration was completed a decade ago (its origins date back to the 1700s). One of the gates of the fort, Churchgate (after which the station is named), got its name from this church. Apart from stunning stained glass architecture, the church houses beautiful memorial plaques.

What we liked
The city buff in us had several queries, and Dhulap had the answers to each one, and a bit more too. So, the walk was insightful. We also liked the old photographs printed as postcards as our take-home. Kitab Khana is ideal for a mid-walk stop.

Horniman Circle, St Thomas' Cathedral and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus building

What we didn't like
The walk didn't cover parts of the actual Bazaar Gate area like Bora Bazaar Street and the GPO, as well as bylanes like Cochin Street and Goa Street. A huge minus, this. Instead, we trailed across Flora Fountain, the Oriental Building, all the way to Bombay Gymkhana, Fashion Street, Metro theatre, Crawford Market, even BMC and CST buildings. When we asked Dhulap, he reasoned that non-Indian tourists usually sign up for their walks, with the request to include such stops.

Another downer was the over-three-hour-long duration. It would be inhuman for anyone to trudge in Mumbai's soaring heat for so long. And, we'd strongly suggest changing the name of this walk to Fort Walk, or the like; interested folk might get misled otherwise.

Cost Rs 1,500

NOTE: The guide reviewed this walk anonymously.