Overview
- Features: Mumbai’s premier railway station featuring Victorian Gothic architecture
- Opening Times: 24/7
- Best Time to Visit: Late October to early March
- Duration: 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Travelled By: Train
- Cost: Free
- Address: Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Area, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Type: Building
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Summary
The most impressive example of Victorian Gothic architecture in India, Victoria Terminus railway station (now renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) is a rich extravaganza of domes, spires and arches. Imposing, exuberant and overflowing with people, this is the city’s most extravagant Gothic building, the beating heart of its railway network, and an aphorism for colonial India.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Mumbai
The most impressive example of Victorian Gothic architecture in India, Victoria Terminus railway station (now renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) is a rich extravaganza of domes, spires and arches. It is often mistaken for a grand palace or cathedral. Imposing, exuberant and overflowing with people, this is the city’s most extravagant Gothic building, the beating heart of its railway network, and an aphorism for colonial India.
Designed by Frederick William Stevens and decorated by local art students and craftsmen, the station was completed in 1887 and named to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Now the headquarters of the Central Railway, over 1,000 trains and three million passengers, including crowds of suburban commuters, pass through the station daily, though the bustling chaos of old has been reined in somewhat since November 2008’s terror attacks, when at least 50 people were shot dead here. In 2004, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Several scenes from Slumdog Millionaire were filmed on the suburban platforms at the west end of the station.
The introduction of Gothic elements to Indian architecture allowed a blending of Western traditions with Indian (largely Islamic) motifs, which became known as the Indo-Saracenic style. As a result, the station is a meringue of Victorian, Hindu and Islamic styles whipped into an imposing Dalíesque structure of buttresses, domes, turrets, spires and stained-glass windows.
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Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is a statement of crowning glory: a huge, symmetrical, gargoyle-studded frontage capped by a large central dome and a 4-metre high statue of Progress, with arcaded booking halls, stained glass and glazed tiles inspired by St Pancras. The giant caterpillar-like walkway with perspex awnings looks truly incongruous against the huge Gothic structure. As historian Christopher London put it, ‘the Victoria Terminus is to the British Raj what the Taj Mahal is to the Mughal Empire’.
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The Central Dome, a 4-metre (13 feet) high statue of “Progress”, holding a torch, crowns the colossal dome, which has eight decorated ribs. A majestic staircase of blue stone, with beautiful iron railings, sweeps up beneath the dome. Water spouts shaped like animal heads jut out from the base of the dome.
Stained glass windows, colourful tiles and decorative iron grilles add to the station’s beauty. Set into the octagonal tower below the dome are brilliantly coloured stained glass windows, decorated with a locomotive and foliage.
Studded into the façade are busts of Raj-era personalities such as Sir Bartle Frere.
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The entrance gate piers are topped by stone sculptures of a lion and a tiger, symbolising Britain and India respectively. The gables are crowned by sculptures representing Engineering, Agriculture and Commerce.
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While the entire station complex is a work of art, there are two areas worth closer inspection for their beauty and grace – the Booking Hall and the stone carvings and sculptures around the station.
The Booking Hall has a Neo-Gothic vaulted roof with wooden ribs over the hall.
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Of the stone carvings and sculptures, the most beautiful is an exquisite peacock carving that decorates one of the station windows. Other carved screens and friezes feature elephants, monkeys and snakes.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is the best example of Victorian Gothic architecture in India and a visit to this magnificent train station should not be missed while in Mumbai.
Wow! the architectural design of this Mumbai train station is awesome. Is there anything worth looking at inside the station?
While most of the architectural details are on the outside of the station, the roof inside is quite nice too. The inside is nowhere near as spectacular as the outside.