Navigating Fort

If walls had ears, buildings would be storytellers and a walk scheduled for this Saturday hopes to extract the tales pressed between the brick of SoBo's buildings. And though it may seem cumbersome to study the history of a city through ancient and sepia-tinted maps, architect and professor Neethu Mathew aims to do just that.

Exploring 250 Years of History of Mumbai's Fort via Maps is a trail organised by India Heritage Walks and Miraashi Media, a documentation and heritage tour initiative. In it, participants will be taken through the neighbourhood of Fort, covering several iconic landmarks, including Horniman Circle and the Town Hall that houses the Asiatic Society Library.

Mathew, who teaches the history of architecture at a college in Borivali and therefore has access to maps dating as far back at the late 1800s, tells us, "I've been conducting walks for a year and this time, I thought of doing something different. Usually, such trails entail looking at the buildings, enjoying architecture or getting fascinated by how old a building is, but here, we'll look at maps to understand how cities were planned."

Neethu Mathew

If you look into the origin of cities, they typically begin with a fort or the citadel. Keeping that in mind, Mathew will take participants through the evolution of Mumbai as a planned city. "If you compare the current map of Mumbai with older ones of Bombay during the British rule, you will see that it is possible to still spot a pattern of the fort that used to exist and has been replaced by buildings today," she explains. Well, that sounds like an informative weekend, for sure.

ON June 29, 10 am to 11:30 am
MEETING POINT In front of Town Hall, Fort.
CALL 9920557729
LOG ON TO indiaheritagewalks.org

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