Bombay, 1890s
1890sBombay University Garden · Photo by Photoglob Co., Library of Congress, Public domain
TodayOval Maidan · Photo by Rangan Datta Wiki, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Rajabai Clock Tower was only a couple of decades old when this was taken. The tower, the lawns and the palms are all still there; the cricket has moved in.
1890sBombay harbour · Photo by Photoglob Co., Library of Congress, Public domain
TodayGateway of India · Photo by Kush Jain, CC BY-SA 4.0
The mail steamer from England is coming in. For most of a century this was how the world arrived in the city, and the harbour front was its front door. The Gateway of India was built on it in 1924.
1890sPydhonie Street · Photo by Photoglob Co., Library of Congress, Public domain
TodayMinara Masjid · Photo by Swapnil Sakhare, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bullock carts and carved balconies in the heart of the bazaar. The carts have become handcarts and tempos, and some of the balconies are still up there if you look above the shop signs.
1890sGirgaum Road · Photo by Photoglob Co., Library of Congress, Public domain
TodayGirgaon Chowpatty · Photo by Historical Trains, CC0
Tram tracks down the middle, low tiled houses and more palms than people. Girgaon is one of the most tightly packed neighbourhoods in the city now; the sand at its edge is where it goes to breathe.
1890sKalbadevi Road · Photo by Photoglob Co., Library of Congress, Public domain
A temple front carved like lace, on the road the cloth merchants made rich. We do not have a photograph of this stretch today yet.
The old pictures are photochroms: black-and-white photographs given their colour by hand in the printing, published in Zurich in the 1890s and kept today by the Library of Congress. The present-day photographs show the same neighbourhood, not the same spot or angle.
