The Great Western Building is a building at

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. This large and palatial-looking building has served many uses. It was once the

residence A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home or dwelling, where people reside. Residence may more specifically refer to: * Domicile (law), a legal term for residence * Habitual residence, a civil law term dealing with the status ...

of the

Governor of Bombay Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...

William Hornby William Hornby may refer to: *William Hornby (governor) (1723–1803), Governor of Bombay, 1771–1784 *William Henry Hornby (1805–1884), British industrialist, Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn 1857–1869 *Sir William Hornby, 1st Baronet ...

, a former governor who was instrumental in initiating the Hornby Vellard project which bunded the breach at Mahalaxmi, lived here for a few years of his term in office. It also served as the ''Admiralty House'',

of the Commander-in-chief of the Indian Fleet from 1770–1795. Lachlan Macquarie, who was later the Governor of New South Wales (1810-1821), lived at Admiralty House. He records in his journal for 23 April 1794 that – '' Mr. Tasker having been so obliging to give us a friendly invitation to live in his town house (Admiralty House), during the hot weather and while he should remain in the country, (where he lives at present) we accepted of his offer''. Around 1800, it was purchased by the Government and transformed into The ''Recorders Court'' until 1878. The original porch was removed when the street was widened. The property was purchased by Rustomjee Jeejeebhoy and then sold to the Sassoon family. In 1883, it was sold again and converted into a hotel known as the Great Western Hotel. A new five-storied wing was added in the early 1890s. It was designed by renowned architect S. M. N. Chandabhoy who also designed another smaller three-storied building in the later 1890s. In time, the hotel closed and the rooms have been divided and further subdivided for optimum rental.

References

https://www.mq.edu.au/macquarie-archive/lema/1794/1794april.html Buildings and structures in Mumbai {{India-struct-stub