STATE CENTRAL LIBRARY (Town Hall)

Mumbai

Location: Horniman Circle ,Fort area

Architectural style : Neo Classical
Built in : 1833
Architect: Colonel Thomas Cowper

Town Hall is one of the most majestic structures among the other heritage
buildings Mumbai. It can be referred that this building represents one of the
last architectural remnants of the Victorian Bombay.

A flight of 30 steps lead up to the town hall and the building is dominated by
fluted Doric columns and triangular pediment which is inspired by the
ancient Greece. whilst its columns were shipped here from England, the
building is also logically adapted to suit the local climate. Looking beyond the
columns to the carved wooden awnings above the tall entry doors - an
indigenous means of making interior spaces bright and cool by keeping out
the sun but letting in the breeze. The huge projecting window canopies with
intricate fretwork are for providing shade to the rooms within- an adaption to
the tropical heat. A give and take that characterises so many of Mumbai’s
historic forms and spaces.

The Asiatic Society consists of city’s largest library with a collection of

8,00,000 antique volumes. With its old parquet floors, spiral staircases,
wrought iron loggias, and exquisite marble statues of forgotten city fathers,
the colonnaded Town Hall is perhaps the most regal and elegant of Mumbai’s
heritage buildings.
 Interior of the Town hall

Recently Town hall has been renovated considering its one of the major
attractions in the city. The main hall now looks like how a heritage library
ought to look. Whereas previously it resembled a messy government office
with steel cabinets, laminated tables and metal chairs, the room now has a
burnished glow from yellow lights illuminating wooden tables and chairs,
newspaper stands and bookshelves. The place is lit with chandeliers as well
as lamps on each table and ventilated by vintage-style fans mounted on
Corinthian columns.

The simplicity of the building does the magic over here with its grand
staircases where you can sit and feel the atmosphere around you.

PAYAL SURTI
B-35

Sources:
(townhall)
(hindustantimes)

Bibliography

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/t/019pho0000254s3u00003000.html

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/maharashtra-cm-inaugurates-renovated-town-hall-

at-asiatic-library/story-P96VI7vkMTOaPGY8RkbelO.html