Description
- 👥 Ages 0-100
- ⏳ Duration: 2.5 hours
- 🕒 Start time: Check availability (24hr advance booking)
- 📱 Mobile ticket
- 🌐 Live guide: English
Highlights
- Journey back 350 years when Mumbai was just a lonely island nobody wanted
- Discover how a £10 annual rent deal changed the course of Indian history
- Walk where the first settlers dared to call Bombay home
- Experience Ballard Estate – where Victorian London architects dreamed in stone
- Stand at Flora Fountain, Mumbai’s quirky answer to Piccadilly Circus
- Explore the 275-year-old Naval Dockyard where maritime empires were forged
- End at the legendary Gateway where kings, queens, and dreams arrived by sea
About
In 1661 King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine of Braganza. The marriage dowry gave to the English the island of Bombay which the Portuguese had no use for. Charles himself didn’t care two hoots for the island. But it was the British East India Company that realised the importance of Bombay’s perfect natural harbour. Deep enough to accommodate 150 ships and with a natural fortification in the form of mainland India, Bombay was perfect for the company’s operations. And so with the Company renting the islands from the Crown, for £10/- annually, Bombay’s illustrious history began.
Here’s a chance to go back in time almost 350 years….when there was no Mumbai, just one small island of Bombay. Walk along the periphery of the ‘front’ bay and re-chart the birth of Mumbai. The first of our four historic walks the ‘Apollo Gate and Front Bay Walk’ covers the northern part of the old ‘Fort’. This was the area where the first signs of habitation were seen on the island of Bombay. The walk begins in the European Renaissance style Ballard Estate business district with its perfect avenues and streets echoing reminiscent of Victorian London. See the famous Town Hall which houses the Asiatic Society Library of Mumbai and the Horniman Circle Garden and the spectacular surrounding buildings. Walk down to the Flora Fountain circle which in some very peculiar ways resembles London’s Piccadilly Circus. Walk past the 275 year old Indian Naval Dockyard with its beautiful mural representing the first establishments on the island. Finally end the walk at the world famous Gateway of India and the now legendary Taj Mahal Hotel.

















