The Invisible Treasure IAD Level 2 Watson’s Hotel Saptial Context ABOUT ❖ Built in 1871, the hotel was once a majestic structure ahead of its time that served as the grandest hotel in Mumbai – then Bombay. ❖ Watson's Hotel, now known as the Esplanade Mansion, is India's oldest surviving cast iron building. It is located in the Kala Ghoda area of Mumbai (Bombay). ❖ Named after its original owner, John Watson, the building was fabricated in England and constructed on site between 1860 and 1863. ❖ A crumbling remnant of one of the grandest relics of the British Raj, has been forced to shut down more than 140 years after it was shipped over from England. ❖ Designed by Rowland Mason Ordish, who is known for his detailed work on the single-span roof of St Pancras station, and named for its original owner, John Watson, it was the height of colonial opulence. ❖ "Watson's is supremely historically important," said Abha Narain Lambah, a conservation architect with the Urban Design Research Institute in Mumbai. MORE TO KNOW… ❖ Mark Twain stayed at the hotel in 1896, where he wrote about Bombay's crows from his window in *Following the Equator*. ❖ Noted for its external cast-iron frame that was made in England then shipped to India, the 98 x 30 ft atrium served as a home-from-home for European guests. At its peak, the hotel, which had a strict whites-only policy, employed English waitresses in its lavish bars and restaurant, prompting the joke: "If only Watson had imported the English weather as well". ❖ But the exclusive hotel's "Europeans only" policy was eventually to lead to its own demise as a Mumbai hot spot. ❖ In 1871, Jamsetji Tata, a pioneering industrialist from Gujarat, was allegedly refused entry to Watson's one evening. Humiliated by the racist snub, Tata promptly built the Taj Mahal Hotel down the road, which was at the centre of last November's terrorist attacks on the city and remains today as an icon of modern India. ❖ The titles used are minton tiles on one floor and on another its was redone with wooden planks. ❖ The first motion picture by two gentlemen from Paris was first shown here. MORE TO KNOW… ❖ The decadence of its heyday has long since faded. The hotel fell into decline after the death of its owner, John Watson, and was eventually sold in the 1960s. Renamed Esplanade Mansion, it is now rented out as office space. ❖ Today, the atrium is smashed and the ballroom is now used as a rubbish dump by the current occupants. Several of the balconies, which once looked out over the Arabian Sea, have collapsed, many of the windows are broken and the building has barely seen a lick of paint since the British left in 1948. ❖ In 2005, part of the hotel's façade collapsed, killing one person just two weeks after Watson's was placed on the Global Watch List of 100 World Endangered Monuments by the New York-based World Monuments Fund. ❖ "It is a huge concern – especially ahead of the Monsoon - and the building could collapse any day," Ms Lambah said. ❖ "It has been a ten year campaign to restore it, but it has slipped of the government's agenda. Work cannot begin because there are so many tenants in the building and it is impossible to evict them all. I am not hopeful of saving it." SURROUNDING STRUCTURES MAP NGMA Army and Navy Building Jehangir Art Gallery Fabindia Elphinstone College Rajabai Clock Tower City Civil & Sessions Court Mantralaya Kalaghoda Rhythm House The mecca of music and entertainment, Rhythm House, passed away into history on March 1s 2016, exactly 68 years after it first opened in 1948. National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai was opened to the public in 1996. It hosts various exhibitions and art collections of famous artists, sculptors and different civilisations. It is located near Regal Cinema in Colaba. CITY CIVIL AND SESSION COURT In 1728, under a Royal Charter, the Court of Oyer and Terminer and Jail (Gaol) delivery, came to be established in Bombay. The Court was composed of the Governor and some members of his Council, who as justices of the Peace, had jurisdiction to try all offences except high treason. The Old Secretariat Building (In which City Civil And Sessions Court is housed) was designed and built by architect Col.Henry St. Clair Wilkins and planner Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere during 1865-74 . It is described as a building in the Venetian Gothic style. Mantralaya is the administrative headquarters of the state government of Maharashtra in South Mumbai, built in 1955. Mantralaya was earlier known as Sachivalaya.. The headquarters of most State Governments in India are called Secretariats. The Rajabai Clock Tower is a clock tower in South Mumbai India. It is located in the confines of the Fort campus of the University of Mumbai. The tower stands at a height of 85 m. Opened: November 1878 Architectural style: Gothic architecture DAVID SASOONS LIBRARY The David Sassoon Library is the name of a famous library and heritage structure in Mumbai, India. The building was designed by architects J. Campbell and G. E. Gosling, for the Scott McClelland and Company. It was completed in 1870. ARMY AND NAVY BUILDING A view of David Sasoons Library, Army and Navy building and Watson’s Hotel. JEHANGIR ART GALLERY The Jehangir Art Gallery is an art gallery in Mumbai. It was founded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir at the urging of K. K. Hebbar and Homi Bhabha. It was built in 1952 Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is an institution of higher education affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Mumbai. DONE BY** Anamika Esha Nikita* ** Images and information has been taken from various sites and credits to many nice people. * Not been to the site as yet..