 Located in the Fort district of Mumbai, Horniman Circle Gardens is surrounded by office complexes that house some of the country’s premier banks. According to initial plans of the city’s planners, the garden was never meant to be there. It was merely a circle of stately buildings including Town Hall housing the Asiatic Library and the Central Library. Bank of Bombay (State Bank of India) was the first occupant of the first building erected in the Circle. Other buildings in the circle were completed by 1873.
The empty space was developed into the present day garden, due to the efforts of police commissioner Charles Forjett, Lord Elphinstone and Sir Bartle Frère. Trees were planted, walkways were laid out and the empty place was converted into a beautiful garden.
The garden was named after the then Governor, Lord Elphinstone and called Elphinstone Circle. Post independence, the garden saw its name change to Horniman Circle after Benjamin Horniman, an English journalist who was a leading advocate of Indian self-determination at the Deccan Chronicle.
The garden project was started in 1869 and completed in 1972. It was spread over an area of more than 10,000 square meters and was a favourite hangout of the Parsi community. In the pre-independence era, visitors were treated to band performances every evening. Today, it is a venue for performances by Prithvi Theatre and acts during the Kala Ghoda festival. As soon as the theatre started having performances at the garden in 1996, people were attracted to them. On public demand, the theatre started organising shows on the first weekend of every month in the non-monsoon months. This trend continues even today, with each show having an average of 150 people in attendance. Several poetry reading sessions are often organised, drawing more gentry and art and poetry lovers to the garden.
The Horniman Garden is said to be the replica of London’s Park Crescent. The entrance is grand and is made of ornamental wrought iron. This wrought iron also forms part of the fencing around the garden. The western end of the circle has a majestic banyan tree, with its branches spread in every direction. This is the very banyan tree that saw 22 stockbrokers begin trading somewhere in the mid-1850s, with each investing a princely sum of one rupee. The group later organised themselves as the Native Share and Stockbrokers Association in 1875. This Association has today evolved into the oldest stock exchange of our country – The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The garden also has a freshwater well and a fountain that was donated by a city businessman in 1873. Not only did the well quench the thirst of cotton and opium brokers, clerks and passers-by; but also provided relief to the thirsty animals that drew the carriages and trams.
One can also experience the beauty of the garden from the top of the 30 stairs of the adjacent Town Hall. The axial view through the garden to Flora Fountain, Churchgate Street, the Arabian Sea and Malabar Point is truly amazing.
Ruchika Batra
Address:
Horniman Circle Gardens, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Horniman Circle, Fort, Mumbai – 400 023 |
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