19 Nov TUES: Iconic Buildings Mumbai (VT Station, Post Office, Crawford Market)

We transferred to our new (temporary) budget hotel which is in a very busy, central part of Mumbai then went out for a brief walk as we wanted to buy some peppercorns, spices and Assam tea from nearby Crawford Market.

Our Hotel is within a 20 minute walk of a couple of iconic buildings that we've always admired.First off is the General Post Office building.   at 120,000 sq ft it is HUGE.  It was designed by a British architect, John Begg in 1902.   Work started in 1904 and was completed in 1913.   Its in need of a bit of TLC/cleaning but is still a stunning building.

Because of the scale of the building, and the difficulty in finding a good vantage point without risking life and limb standing in the middle of the busy road, its hard to photograph and this is the best I could do. 

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly known as Victoria Terminus Station, was designed by British architect Frederick William Stevens in 1878 and completed in 1888. It was named the Victoria Terminus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's rule in 1987, but had a name change in 1996. (Its still largely referred to as VT  - well the current name doesn't really trip off the tongue).

Its the HQ of the Indian central railway and the busiest station in India and is very ornate both inside and outside 

Inside the ticket office

and the main station/tracks

It was so hot/humid when we left Crawford Market we couldn't face the walk so took a Uber taxi back to our hotel and I photographed VT through the car window as we were further away so I could get more of the building in the frame

Across the road from the VT building is another grand one.   This is the Mumicipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai offices (Council offices).

The MCGM is the governing civic body of Mumbai and India's richest municipal corporation.  It is responsible for the civic infrastructure and admin of the city and some of its suburbs

The building was designed by British architect, Frederick William Stevens, the same man who designed the VT station building.  It was completed in 1893.   He was certainly a busy bee and a great designer of wonderfully ornate buildings

Crawford Market is a popular market which sells everything from perfumes and cosmetics, clothing, fruit & vegetables, cheese, chocolate and confectionary, meat and animals/birds.   Its spread over a large area of around 72,000 sq yds.   

It was designed in a Gothic style by William Emerson (another British architect) and built in 1871.   It has a skylight awning about 50ft above ground level which allows light into the market.   It was apparently the first market in India to receive electricity (1882).

Photographed from across the very busy road in front of the main facade 

We bought our peppercorns (so much nicer than the ones you get in UK supermarkets) and some spices and loose leaf Assam tea for his lordship.    I won't post photos of the market stalls as they don't differ much from all the ones I've shown previously.

We would have liked to visit a few more of the iconic buildings in the area but the temperature was in the mid 30s and very humid so we called it a day and that's the end of our Indian adventures 

We've done so many more things than mentioned in the Blog but its very difficult keeping the posts up to date.   This happens every time I write a travel Blog and I always vow to go through the photos again when we're back home and fill in the gaps in the Blog ... but it never happens.