High Court, Mumbai
About
 High court of Mumbai is located in the erstwhile
Fort of Mumbai. It is a hauntingly beautiful
structure opposite the maidan which was formerly
a bowling green during the British Raj where
one can find many budding cricketers striking
away at the ball and playing blissfully.
Nearby attractions and the Grand Court
From the western side of Flora Fountain stretches
the Veer Nariman Road. The pavements of this
street are packed with roadside stalls selling
books, old and new, classics and fiction, academic
and porn literature. As one moves along, at
the intersecting Bhaurao Patil Road is the Bhikha
Behram Kuwa, an 18th century well, considered
sacred by the Parsi community. Non-Parsis are
not allowed to enter but peering through the
flower-covered trellis, one can catch a glimpse
of the Parsis wearing scarves and satin silk
caps, some praying and others lighting the customary
lamps. Further down the road are the Western
Railway Headquarters, the majestic building
in grey stone facade and white plaster cupolas.
Next to it is Churchgate Station, a sterile
post-Independence building teeming with hundreds
of commuters at any given time of the day. Here,
if you backtrack to the Bhaurao Patil Road,
you will confront an impressive Gothic structure
in grey stone -- the High Court. The four storeyed
High Court was completed in 1878. This was the
site of the Esplanade, a bowling green just
outside the fort walls, which were struck down
in the 1860s to make way for a row of public
buildings. On the fringes of what was once the
walled Fort of Mumbai, stands the High Court,
- hauntingly beautiful (some say haunted!) structure,
in brooding black stone. Opposite it lies the
Oval Maidan, formerly a large Bowling Green
where English memsahibs came to "take in the
air." Today, it is an important lung in a congested
city, with aspiring young cricketers practicing
their paces under the watchful eye of the High
Court and the Mumbai University.
The grand structure
A splendid Gothic revival building designed
by a General Fuller of the Royal engineers,
the High Court was built with local black basalt
during the late 19th century. The chambers are
surrounded by Venetian style galleries decorated
with exuberant carvings of monkeys with scales
of justice, foxes wearing barristers' clothes,
pigs, tigers and birds cavorting in petrified
jungles. The stonemasons were unknown local
artisans, who were given a free hand.
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