Crawford Market: As Architecture ages.

Designed by William Emerson in 1865 on the orders of the first Municipal Commissioner of Bombay from 1865 to 1871, Sir Arthur Crawford, came alive The Crawford Market. It was one of the first closed markets that came up in India in 1869 and was donated to the city by Cowasji Jehangir. After Independence, the market was renamed as the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandi after a Maharashtrian social reformer and was the hub for wholesale fruit and vegetable market, until March 1996 when the trade was relocated to New Bombay.








The Market, built in Norman and Gothic architectural styles is situated just opposite the Mumbai Police headquarters and to north of Victoria Terminus railway station, with the busy J.J.flyover intersection on the west. Spread over 5500 square feet, the building has two major wings and a central Clock tower adorned with intricate Victorian motifs, a weathervane, tall multiple gateways and fountains. Structure built in coarse kurla stone holds up arches made with redstone from Porbunder and Bassein while a network of iron frames and Cast-iron pillars supports the 15 meter high skylight which bathes the inside with natural light.







The friezes just above the main arched entrance depicting Indian peasants in wheat fields and the stone fountains inside were designed by Lockwood Kipling, father of writer Rudyard Kipling. One of the bigger fountains, a 4-tier structure that still stands inside the market was designed by the architect of the building himself.






Now about a century and half old, deservingly marked as Grade-1 Heritage Structure, The Market,is dilapidated in many spots and needs structural strengthening. It got mired in controversy over Restoration and Redevelopment about 4 years ago. Amidst much resistance by Conservationists of the city over the seemingly preposterous re-development plan, The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee(MHCC) green lighted the restoration process while deferring the redevelopment.

Today, while we non-chalantly brace mushrooming multiplexes and malls, structural glazing and tall facades, skyscrapers scraping for clear sky and a window for all, Crawford Market represents an Architecture which is beyond Commerce! Besides the negotiations of mere buying and selling, transactions here have been Affiliations...over ample years: between people and their spaces, between their time and an age, a vernacular style of trade and therefore critically enough a Structure that must Stay.


Factual data reference from wikipedia/related online articles.
Also visit: www.mumbaireadyreckoner.com/2009/02/heritage-walk-crawford-market.html