Chor Bazaar Antique and Curio Lanes

Tucked behind the traffic of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road, Chor Bazaar is the tangle of lanes that Mumbai's collectors, set designers and restorers have been combing for well over a century.

• Its heart is Mutton Street, a narrow run of shopfronts and first-floor godowns where furniture is stacked to the ceiling and the pavement doubles as a display case.
• The name translates as thieves' market, though local lore prefers a gentler origin: that this was once Shor Bazaar, the noisy market, and that the word was reshaped in the retelling.
• Either way, the reputation is part of the theatre, and the dealers have long since learned to enjoy it.
• What actually fills the shelves is salvage and estate stock.
• Teak almirahs and planters' chairs lean against carved four-posters; brass and bell-metal lamps, temple bells, ship's instruments and weighing scales crowd the counters; wind-up gramophones sit beside crates of vinyl, old cameras, enamel advertising signs, glass doorknobs and the stained-glass panels, chrome handles and geometric grilles stripped from Bombay's Art Deco buildings during renovations.
• Reproductions and convincingly aged pieces sit alongside the genuinely old, so buy on the strength of the object rather than the story attached to it.
• Bargaining is expected and unhurried, prices are rarely fixed, and travellers should note that Indian law restricts the export of genuine antiquities more than a hundred years old.
• Most shops open late morning and shut around early evening, and the bazaar traditionally observes Friday as its weekly closing day, so plan for any other day of the week.
• Weekends are busiest and the lanes are narrow, so come in walking shoes and carry small change.
• This is a working residential neighbourhood as much as a market: ask before photographing people or shop interiors, keep doorways clear, and browse with the same courtesy you would extend anywhere that people live and trade.
• For pure-vegetarian food, plan a short walk rather than eating on the spot.
• The stalls immediately around the bazaar lean heavily non-vegetarian, so vegetarian travellers are best served heading about fifteen minutes south-west into the Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi and Zaveri Bazaar lanes, where Gujarati and Marwari thali houses, farsan counters and Udupi-style idli-dosa cafes have fed the cloth and jewellery trades for generations.
• Many are long-established pure-veg kitchens, but menus and ownership change, so look for the pure-veg board at the door and confirm with the counter, including whether any batter or bakery item contains egg, before you order.