Heritage walk: Exploring history behind how modern Mumbai came to be

The first edition of the Modern Mumbai walk at Oval Maidan

A varied architectural history has always been central to Mumbai's landscape. At the time of Independence, Britain had one architect per 4,000 people, in stark contrast to India having one architect per 1,000,000 people. Bombay, however, had over half of the country's architects. But in a city that has changed rapidly, and has so much to share - be it the people and their stories or the spaces that surround them, there's always something that's forgotten. And this Saturday, a Modern Mumbai walk organised by Trip 360 with historian Alisha Sadikot aims to shed light on the same.

Empress Court at Churchgate is an Art Deco structure built in 1938

"We will be covering the stretch from Oval Maidan to Nariman point in the context of the 20th century. You see the high point of Gothic architecture, then in the 1920s, the Art Deco style comes into play, and suddenly you spot the high rises - the Trident building, for instance. So, on a single trail, there's evidence of different time periods," Sadikot says.

Alisha Sadikot

She hesitates to use the word "heritage" as a prefix, because the walk she tells us, is not just about architecture but also the social and political movements associated with the city back then. "It's crucial to understand how our city changed post Independence, as well as the reason behind Mumbai growing vertically for a while now. We delve into how the city's population grew from one million to 20 million, the old plans for New Bombay, as well as the issue of land reclamation. As a participant, you might have seen a lot of this before, but this will be an exercise in noticing both the huge and minute changes," she adds.

ON: September 22, 8 am to 10 am
MEETING POINT: Oval Maidan, Maharshi Karve Road, Churchgate.
LOG ON TO: insider.in
COST: Rs 999

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