Bombay High Court

Few working offices anywhere in India look like this. The Bombay High Court rises in blue-basalt tiers along Dr.

• Kane Road, on the western rim of the Fort precinct, its arcades facing the open green of the Oval Maidan and, beyond it, the Art Deco apartment blocks of Marine Drive.
• The court itself was constituted in 1862; the building that houses it went up through the 1870s to a design credited to Colonel James A.
• Fuller, and the judges moved in for the legal year of 1879.
• Nearly a century and a half later it is still doing exactly what it was built to do — a busy courthouse, with advocates in black robes hurrying under the arches and clerks carrying bundles of paper tied in red tape.
• Architecturally it is Victorian Gothic tuned to a Bombay climate.
• Deep verandah arcades stack one above the other along the long facade, shading the corridors and giving the stone a restless play of light and shadow; a central tower of roughly 53 metres is flanked by lower octagonal towers carrying figures of Justice and Mercy.
• Look closely at the capitals and brackets and the carving turns mischievous: a monkey with bandaged eyes weighing a pair of scales, a fox wearing the bands of an advocate.
• Guides will tell you a disgruntled stonemason slipped them in as a comment on the law's fairness — an old Bombay story, delightful, and impossible to verify.
• In 2018 the building was inscribed, with its neighbours around the Oval, as part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the city's Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles.
• Plan it as an exterior visit.
• This is a functioning court, security is tight and casual sightseeing indoors is not encouraged; photography within the premises is not permitted, and anyone entering on genuine business should carry photo identification and dress conservatively.
• The rewarding view is from the Oval Maidan footpath, where the whole west facade lines up with cricket in the foreground — best in the first hours after sunrise or in the last of the afternoon light, when the basalt warms.
• Carry on north past the university's Rajabai Clock Tower or east into the Kala Ghoda streets and you have one of the finest architectural walks in the country.
• Eating vegetarian here is easy, but Mumbai is a seafood city and many kitchens in Fort and Colaba cook fish and meat, so read the board or ask before you sit down.
• The Churchgate and Kala Ghoda blocks a few minutes away hold several long-running Gujarati and Rajasthani thali houses that describe themselves as pure vegetarian — worth confirming at the door — where an unlimited lunch thali of rotli, dal, kadhi, two shaak and rice is the classic midday move.
• Around Fountain and the lanes behind the Fort offices, small South Indian counters turn out idli, medu vada and filter coffee; these are usually all-vegetarian kitchens, though a quick check still helps.
• For something faster, the chaat and sandwich carts along the maidan edge are vegetarian by default, and a glass of sugarcane juice or nariyal pani is the right answer to a Mumbai afternoon.