Mumbai – DECO WALKS

The walk starts outside Astoria Hotel which housed Venice, the restaurant where Chris Perry led a quintet, and Braz Gonsalves was a star in the 1960s. The Ritz opposite the road housed the Little Hut where Shirley Myers entertained guests. Highlights of the walk include The New India Assurance Building, Soona Mahal that once housed Parisian Dairy and Talk of the Town, The Ambassador Hotel, The InterContinental Marine Drive and Mockingbird Cafe which was once vegetarian thali Mecca, Purohit. The walk winds down with refreshments and an archival photo tour at Gaylord.

Location: Veer Nariman Road
Start point: Astoria Hotel; End point: Gaylord

An exclusive walk through the newly-restored Eros cinema by conservation architect Kirtida Unwalla will oer rare access to a time when movie-going was a glamorous escape from war-time anxiety. Built in 1938, the Agra stone edice was designed to resemble an ocean liner pulling into a dock. Its bas relief panels across curved walls, octagonal elevators and frozen fountain, all preserved, speak of an era when movie-going was a glamorous escape from war-time anxiety.

Venue: Eros cinema, Churchgate
Start Point: Eros entrance

One of the largest Art Deco precincts in Mumbai, Shivaji Park that was once home to literary and political legends shunned extravagance for modesty in its structures. The tour will go past Savarkar Sadan, Shivaji Park ground and open gym, Shah Sadan and Udyaan Ganpati among other structures featuring ocean waves, Art Deco typography in Devnagiri script, and sunbursts.

Location: Shivaji Park
Start Point: Senapati Bapat Statue, End Point: Jojo Books

The city’s rst planned suburb of Matunga-Dadar was envisioned to avoid overcrowding in central Mumbai and was home to Maharashtrians, Bengalis, and Parsis. Hindu Colony’s charming buildings reect a mix of architecture styles, and some standout Art Deco residences for the middle class. The tour led by journalist-author begins at Shri Krishna Bhavan, a residential building designed by SH Parelkar, featuring eyebrows, tropical imagery and lettering characteristic of the Art Deco style, and one of the last standing witnesses to an old-world neighbourhood that’s under imminent threat from unchecked redevelopment. The route will pass alongside antiquated eating houses, Rajgruha – the former residence-now memorial of Dr BR Ambedkar with Indo-Deco style elements. The walk ends with chai-bun-maska at Café Colony Stores and Restaurant near Dadar TT Circle, an Irani cafe that’s a reminder of the community living that once exemplied this neighbourhood.

Location: Hindu Colony, Matunga
Start point: Sri Krishna Bhavan; End Point: Cafe Colony

Starting at Meghdoot building, this walk snakes along the unrivalled Marine Drive Art Deco promenade to end at Soona Mahal. Ophthalmologist and lover of all things vintage Bombay, Dr Anand Shro dips into his reservoir of oral history vignettes to speak of a neighbourhood that represented the city’s aspirations toward modernity, cosmopolitanism, and progress, justifying its nickname ‘Queen’s Necklace’. The walk ends with refreshments at Nksha.

Location: Marine Drive
Start Point: Meghdoot building; End Point: Soona Mahal.

A walk centred around the historical and cultural signicance of Vile Parle, with emphasis on its evolution and transformation in response to urbanisation. Vile Parle East, renowned for its Marathi culture, played a pivotal role in the Swarajya movement and was famously referred to as Indian nationalist Lokmanya Tilak’s ‘village’. The inhabitants established a range of religious, social, and educational institutions to meet the needs of the community. Concurrently, the Art Deco architectural style gained popularity in the suburb, manifesting in the construction of residential buildings, temples and schools.

Location: Vile Parle East
Start Point: Lokmanya Seva Sangh on Ram Mandir Road; End point: Datta Temple on Hanuman Road.