Mumbai Guide: Join this walking tour around Ballard Estate to find its history

The Port Trust War MemorialIts the early 1900s The crown jewel of India still rests firmly on the head of the British Empire South Bombay is dotted with docks but the mighty Raj needs more to further its trade interests So the colonisers decide to reclaim land from the sea and build Alexandra Dock near Fort later dumping the reclaimed soil over a 22acre area to build a business district for the resultant shipping industry around the year 1918Enter George Wittet a Scotsman commissioned to design this business district Hes already made a name for himself with the Gateway of India an IndoSaracenic marvel and other notable projects But for this business district Wittet decides to take a leaf out of the buildings in London The trade in Bombay is coming in from Europe and he feels that its only fitting if the buildings reflect that by being European Neoclassical in structure So with this thought in mind Wittet goes about planning the shipping district and when it is finally completed its named after the founding chairman of the Bombay Port Trust mdash Colonel JA BallardBritannia and Co RestaurantThe area was bustling back then with seamen officers porters industrialists etc thronging the streets since morning says Alisha Sadikot who will conduct a walking tour of Ballard Estate as the 22acre plot of land is still known this weekend The idea is to help the participants imagine what Mumbai was like when the city was on the brink of modernity in the early 20th century she addsIn the process they might learn how longstanding names like Goa Street Cochin Street and Calicut Street are fingerposts to history today Historian Deepak Rao reveals Even before docks like Alexandra came up the South Bombay coastline had many jetties Small shipping vessels from the western coast of India docked there carrying goods like spices and coconuts for trade Each jetty was meant for a particular port city like Cochin Kochi or Calicut Kozhikode Thus the street that led to it was named after the place from where the vessels originatedA typically wide street in the Ballard Estate areaThe participants will also be taken on a tour of some of the buildings where the erstwhile shipping industry carried out its commerce and which stand as testimony to Wittets architectural prowess even today They will halt at the Ballard Bunder Gatehouse New Customs House and the Port Trust War Memorial among other places check map The stops also include Hamilton Studio where incidentally a young woman had once walked in with her mother to get photographs taken for marriage The proprietor Ranjeet Madhavji convinced the mother that her daughter was of model material He exhorted her to let him shoot portraits of the young woman and the mother after some coaxing finally agreed thus launching the career of her offspring who we know as Zeenat AmanMapRavi JadhavBut the walk will not be as much about the architecture mdash since most of the buildings are similar in structure mdash as it will be about the history of the place Sadikot saysAlisha SadikotThe development of that area says Rao is something that we whether we like it or not owe almost entirely to the British despite them having their own interests in mind Sadikot feels that the Bombay Port Trust should also get more credit than it is given for giving shape to Ballard Estate mdash the citys first business district And of course so too for Wittet who lies buried as a largely forgotten footnote in time in Sewri cemetery