Town
Hall
With its columns and tall Grecian porticos, this structure has been the foundation
of the Library Society of Mumbai which moved into the Town Hall in 1830, soon
after which a union was effected with the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
and Ireland. One of its greatest assets is its library, a storehouse of knowledge,
which may not have an equal in the east.
This pleasantly neo-classical building now houses the library of the Asiatic
Society, as well as a small museum. The latter contains statues of some 19th
century governors of Bombay, some British scholars and administrators and two
Indian philanthropists and an Indian scholar.
In 1811, James McKintosh, then Recorder of Bombay and resident of the Literary
Society of Bombay, revived an earlier suggestion of a Town Hall for the city.
The society intended that this building should house not only the civic offices,
but also a library and a museum along with civic offices. The Literary Society
raised a fund of Rs. 10,000 through a lottery. When this turned out to be insufficient,
the government had to be persuaded to bear the costs of construction; a process
that took ten years.
The neo-classical design is due to Colonel Thomas Cowper of the Bombay Engineers.
The building is 200 feet long and 100 feet deep. The facade has three porticoes
faced by Ionic columns. The plans called for a double row of columns, built
out of material brought from England. Although these plans were curtailed, the
final cost of the building came to about 500,000 pounds; far in excess of the
initial estimates. The East India Company, took on a major part of the expense.
The building was completed in 1833, after the death of Cowper.
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