Mumbai built itself a seafront in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the result is one of the most unusual architectural neighbourhoods on earth. The Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles, inscribed by UNESCO in 2018, are two separate groups of buildings, facing each other across the Oval Maidan, a big open cricket ground in the south of the city. On one side are the Gothic Revival buildings of the British Raj: the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which was Victoria Terminus, the High Court, the University and the Rajabai Clock Tower. On the other are the Art Deco cinemas, hotels and apartment blocks of the 1930s, along Marine Drive.
The station is the star. Its domes, spires, turrets and carved stone details make it look like a cathedral designed by someone who had never been told what a railway was for, and yet it works as a station for millions of commuters every day. The Rajabai Clock Tower, nearby, was modelled on Big Ben, and chimes the hour above the university library. Along Marine Drive, the curve of seafront buildings, in pastel colours and rounded corners, is the evening resort of the whole city, and families come to sit on the sea wall as the sun goes down.
Riding in Mumbai is for the experienced. Traffic is dense, lanes are suggestions and the rain, from June to September, is torrential. Two-wheelers are not permitted on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, and the rules change, so follow local signs. Mornings and Sundays are the best times for the south of the city, when the streets are quieter and the stone buildings catch the light. Parking is scarce, and it is easier to walk the district.
From the Gateway of India, the Colaba waterfront, ferries cross the harbour to Elephanta Island, whose rock-cut caves, also a World Heritage site, hold a massive carved Shiva. The place shown on the map as Uran lies on the far side of the water, and the road around is long.
Mumbai has fuel and food on every corner. Try a plate of bhel puri on the beach, or a cup of sweet tea at a roadside stall.