Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

Bombay's main terminus opened in 1888 to a design by Frederick William Stevens, Victorian Gothic in its ribs and gables but grafted onto Indian detail: pointed arches over stone screens, local animals worked into the capitals, and a central dome carrying a figure of Progress. It is not a preserved building. Suburban trains still work the platforms behind the facade, and hundreds of services and a large share of the city's commuters pass through every day, so the stone stairs are worn smooth in the middle. The best views are from the traffic island opposite, where the whole west front lines up under the dome, and again after dark when the building is floodlit.

History

The station was built as the headquarters of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway to replace the Bori Bunder terminus, used since 1853, and named Victoria Terminus for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Frederick William Stevens of the Bombay Public Works Department, who won the commission with the help of a watercolour by the draughtsman Axel Haig, designed it in an exuberant Indo-Gothic style; work began in 1878 and took ten years, the longest of any building of its era in Bombay, and the station opened to the public on 20 May 1888. A marble statue of the queen under the clock was taken down in the 1950s and later disappeared, and the figure of Progress on the dome is often mistaken for her; in 1996 the station was renamed after Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (Wikipedia, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus).

What to look for

• The west front and dome - the main facade with its turrets, gables and the crowning figure above.
• The stone carving - capitals and spandrels worked with peacocks, monkeys and local plants.
• The booking hall - ribbed vaulting, tiled floors and stained glass over the ticket windows.
• The commuter platforms - the working suburban side, at its most extreme in the evening peak.

When to go

November to February is the dry, cooler season, and the light on the west front is best in the late afternoon. Floodlighting after dark is the other good window. Avoid the morning and evening commuter peaks if you want to look at anything indoors, or come deliberately during them if the crowd itself is what interests you.

What to expect

This is a functioning station, not a monument with a visitor route, and staff move you along inside. Photography on the platforms is restricted and challenged in practice. The traffic island opposite is the only clear vantage and getting to it means crossing a lot of moving vehicles. Soot and repeated repainting have dulled much of the stonework.

Nearby

The Victorian and Art Deco buildings around the Oval Maidan carry a separate World Heritage listing and are a short walk south.

Key facts