The resurrection of Esplanade Mansion in Fort might be in sight with the owner and tenants of the city’s first iron-framed building planning to present a collaborative repair proposal before the Bombay High Court.
Sadiq Ali Noorani, the owner, told The Hindu , “We have come up with a solution. The tenants and I will repair the building. We will propose a solution to the High Court.” He, however, refused to reveal the details.
If the plan does take off, it will be a huge source of relief to the tenants, who have spent a harrowing four months since they were asked to vacate the building. Many have lost their only source of livelihood.
Last year, the building was in the news when one of its balconies fell from the fourth floor and crashed on a parked taxi. There were no casualties, but it brought to fore the need to inspect the building’s stability. The mansion is representative of the larger issue of privately-owned or Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA)-governed heritage buildings in Mumbai lying in a state of disrepair due to the lack of funds, permissions and political will.
Two incidents involving the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) A ward office brought it back in focus. In one incident, Army Restaurant, on the building’s ground floor, was renovated and re-opened for patrons, raising questions on how that was allowed in a dilapidated building. The ward office later issued it a notice.
After the collapse of a foot overbridge near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in March 2019 aggravated the situation, and the BMC went into overdrive and decided to issue notices to every establishment. Meanwhile, Mr. Noorani and the tenants had separately moved the Bombay High Court in the matter, which is pending. The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has already given a report to the HC stating repairs to the building are not viable, which effectively means it should be demolished.
In May, tenants moved the Supreme Court against an HC order directing them to vacate the premises. However, the SC did not grant relief and merely gave tenants 15 days’ time to vacate. By May 30, the building had been vacated and MHADA promptly barricaded it to prevent any mishap and cordoned off the footpath. UNESCO has made it clear that if the building is demolished, it might send a mission to India to evaluate whether or not this World Heritage Site (Fort precinct) has lost its outstanding universal value.
Since then, nearly 100 tenants have been struggling to find alternate sources of livelihood and following up on the case. MHADA does not have a policy to provide transit accommodation to commercial tenants.
‘State should help’
Mumtaz Ahmed (66), a tailor with Smart and Hollywood, on the building’s ground floor, has moved to a tiny place in Colaba with two other tailors. Smart and Hollywood started in 1945 and boasted the who’s who of Mumbai as its patrons, including actors Meena Kumari, Mumtaz and A.K. Hangal and writer Shobhaa De.
Mumtaz Ahmed and Parimal Nagarseth sitting in the latter's rented clothing shop in Kala Ghoda
“My father told me Sunil Dutt was a regular here before he became an actor. One day, he came to the shop and said, ‘I have my first audition and need to look good’. My father gave him a spare coat. He eventually became a star. His wife Nargis ji and their children Sanjay and Priya used to come very often. The coat never came back, but they were very fond of the shop,” Mr. Ahmed said.
His partner Parimal Nagarsheth said, “We took away our stock from the shop, but what about the furniture and fixtures? I had to leave three of my cupboards there. We used to have around 500 customers a month, but now, all that is gone.” He said he had only been able accommodate 10% of his stock of readymade garments, with the remainder kept in a warehouse. “Even the 10% does not sell here because the location is so poor. I am paying ₹22,000 rent for this place,” said Mr. Nagarsheth, who is operating his readymade clothes’ business from a tiny shop in a small lane nearby. Both Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Nagarsheth have not earned an income for the past four months. “We are ready to pay our share for repairs, but the government should help us. This is a heritage building, and should not be demolished,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Ali Mohammed Chouspur, owner of Army Restaurant, said he had suggested that his father and uncle buy the building decades ago, but they did not heed the suggestion. “Otherwise, we would have been the landlords today,” said Mr. Chouspur. “After my restaurant shut six months ago, I have been sitting at home. Fortunately, my son is providing for me. But I am tired of sitting at home. I don’t think heritage rules will allow the building’s redevelopment, which means it will have to be restored. The government is not interested in restoring it, which is why all our hope rests on the landlord. If he comes up with a solution, the building can be saved. All of us tenants should be rehabilitated.”
Advocate Rajesh Singh, a tenant for 20 years who is representing the others, said, “We have a 2019 report from our structural auditor that says the building can be repaired phase-wise. Redevelopment of the building is extremely tricky because there are mezzanine floors that were added later. Many tenants will not even be recognised by the landlord or MHADA since the landlord has stopped collecting rent for years. There are around 150 tenants, but MHADA will not recognise more than 60 to 70. Where will the others go? Every tenant should be rehabilitated at the same location.”
Only redevelopment: MHADA
Final structure after construction.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has filed a separate public interest litigation in the High Court. Rajan Jaykar, convenor of INTACH said, “We have demanded that the State government acquire this building by compensating the owner and tenants. It should then restore the building, the way a private clothing brand did at Fort. The State rehabilitated Metro-affected properties, right? Why can’t it do the same here? Eventually, we can allow the property on lease with the condition that no alterations be made to it.”
A senior conservation architect from the city who did not wish to be named said, “INTACH’s solution is not feasible, because then every private building owner will expect the State to bail them out. If you revert the building to its original position, without taking into consideration interventions done over the years, it can survive. They say cast iron is not available but they can get it made. The first thing that needs to be done is inspect how much of the building is according to original plans and what are the interventions.”
By interventions, the architect was referring to the placement of concrete slabs, mezzanine floors and so on over the years. However, if the interventions are removed, many tenants will lose their tenancy rights. “Besides, let us say the State, landlord and tenants together repair the building. We need to think about its maintenance. The tenants cannot continue to pay a meagre rent as per Rent Control Act. Similarly, MHADA should increase its cess. Maybe a lease of 30 years for the building will be a good idea.”
However, MHADA is sticking to its stand. Vinod Ghosalkar, chairman of MHADA’s Repair Board, said, “Redevelopment of the building is the only solution to this issue. If we decide to restore it through conservation, the cost may run up to ₹200 crore to ₹300 crore. For us, the safety of its tenants is the biggest concern. Besides, if we do not redevelop, that means the cost of restoration will have to be borne by the State, owner and tenants. Most tenants will not be able to afford even a fraction of the cost. By redeveloping it, we will be able to recover those costs and tenants will not bear the burden. Besides, the material required for it, including cast iron, is not available any more. Yes, in the case of Metro, land acquisition was done but Metro will recover that cost through its revenue. What about Esplanade? We will not get any revenue out of it.”
Milind Mhaiskar, CEO of MHADA, said it is a private building and MHADA cannot demolish or reconstruct it. “A decision is to be taken by the owner and tenants. It is not fair to expect MHADA to pay for repairs. There are 15,000 such buildings in Mumbai. If the owner has to reconstruct it, he will have to follow heritage norms. If the owner goes ahead with repairs, he will have to conduct a structural audit and submit a report to MHADA. But there is a life to every structure.”
Mr. Mhaiskar reiterated the need for a policy regarding the repair of private, dilapidated heritage buildings in Mumbai. The government is supposed to file an affidavit in the matter before the HC, possibly in October.
A slice of history
Original design
Situated in Kala Ghoda art district, Esplanade Mansion, formerly Watson’s Esplanade Hotel, was built for its British owner John Hudson Watson by architect Rowland Mason Ordish between 1867 and 1869. The cast iron and wrought iron required for its construction was pre-fabricated in a foundry in England and shipped to India, where the building was put together. It was the then Bombay’s first luxury hotel, with 130 rooms and 20 suites. Eventually, it changed hands and became Esplanade Mansion, a residential-commercial building with over 100 tenants.
Since then, the 148-year-old building has withstood the test of time. It is a Grade II-A heritage structure, on the World Monuments Watch’s list of 100 most endangered buildings, and part of theUNESCO Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble in south Mumbai.
An article by Jonathan Clarke published in Construction History , Volume 18, 2002, is a valuable document on the Esplanade Mansion. The article states that Watson’s Hotel is the first multi-storey habitable building in the world in which all loads, including those of brick curtain walls, are carried on an iron frame, a precursor to the American skyscrapers of the 1890s.
The land on which Esplanade stands was opened up from obsolete industrial and maritime works by the Governor of Bombay, Sir Henry Bartle Frere (1862-67). The land was auctioned to raise money for construction of other government and commercial buildings in Fort. John H. Watson paid ₹110 per square yard for the two plots. His original proposal was not a hotel, but an additional office and showroom for his thriving drapery and tailoring business on Churchgate Street.
In 1870, when the Duke of Edinburgh was visiting Bombay, Mr. Watson allowed people to watch the fireworks in Backbay from the hotel’s terrace for ₹20 per ticket. However, John H. Watson died in 1871 and may have never witnessed the hotel’s formal opening.
Initially, the building was supposed to have a Mansard roof (with four sloping sides), but later, the architect realised that these roofs are not suitable for India, and went for a flat one. The hotel was finally opened on February 4, 1871. It had a ground floor restaurant with an attached billiards room, a first floor dining saloon, three upper floors with 130 rooms, the uppermost of which was reserved for “bachelors and quasi single gentlemen”. It had punkahwallahs serving every room and commanded breathtaking views of the harbour, bay and distant hills. It had Minton-tiled flooring, and its pedestrian arcade was meant for window-shopping. Heights of room ceilings decreased in the building, from 20 feet on the ground floor to 14 feet on the fourth floor.
The interiors of Watson Esplanade Hotel. It had a sumptuous, top-lit ground floor restaurant with an attached billiard room, a first-floor dining saloon, and three upper storeys given over to 130 bedrooms and apartments, the uppermost of which were reserved for bachelors and quasi-single gentlemen. With over 120 baths fitted, almost one to each bedroom, it outdid European levels of luxury.
Two Rudyard Kipling stories mention the hotel. On July 7, 1896 Watson’s Hotel offered a screening of Lumiere Brothers’ first films, Entry of a Cinematographe , Arrival of a Train and The Sea Bath, among others. It housed India’s first power-operated elevator. Legend has it that J.N. Tata was asked to leave this hotel as it was ‘whites only’, after which he swore to build a hotel that would outdo Watson’s in splendour and convenience. He then built the Taj.
By 1920, Watson’s Hotel ceased to be a hotel, having been renamed Mahendra Mansion by its then owner Maharaja Morvi Singh. Ironically, it was purchased by the Tatas in 1944, thus becoming Esplanade Mansion.
Pakistan’s first Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah played pool at the hotel, while American writer Mark Twain was another famous patron.
