Flora Fountain
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Flora Fountain is a Fountain located at the
Hutatma Chowk Hutatma Chowk ("Martyrs' Square, (Officially, Hutatma Smarak Chowk) ("Martyrs Memorial Square"), is a square in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The square hosts Flora Fountain and was known by that name until 1961 when it was officially ren ...
is an ornamentally sculpted architectural heritage monument located at the southern end of the historic
Dadabhai Naoroji Road Dadabhai Naoroji Road (D.N.Road), a North–South commercial artery road, in the Fort business district in South Mumbai of Maharashtra, India, is the nerve centre of the city, starting from the Mahatma Phule Market (also known as, Crawford Mar ...
, at the Fort business district in the heart of
South Mumbai South Mumbai, colloquially SoBo from South Bombay in Anglo-Indian English, administratively the Mumbai City District, is the city centre and the southernmost precinct of Greater Bombay. It extends from Colaba to Mahim and Sion neighbour ...
,
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- ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Flora Fountain, built in 1864, depicts the Roman goddess
Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...
. It was built at a total cost of Rs. 47,000, or 9,000 pounds sterling, a large sum in those days.


History

The fountain originally intended for the Victoria Gardens, is now surmounted by the figure of Plenty ("Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries."). History of the Flora Fountain is traced to the time when the Old Mumbai Fort was demolished in 1860 as part of the then Governor, Sir Bartle Frère's efforts to improve civic sanitation (municipal improvements) and the urban space requirements of the growing city. Prior to this demolition, the Fort had been built between 1686 and 1743 by the British East India Company with three gates (the Apollo Gate, the Church Gate and the Bazaar Gate), a
moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
, esplanade, level open spaces on its western fringe (to control fires) and residences. A small road called the Hornby Road, named after the then Governor of Bombay (Mumbai) between 1771 AD and 1784 AD, also existed at the old Fort area. Consequent to the demolitions, the Hornby road was widened into a broad avenue and on its western side commercial plots were developed to build new commercial buildings in Neo Classical and Gothic Revival designs. The Dadabhai Naoroji Road (D. N. Road), developed into a veritable sight of colonial splendor with
Crawford Market Crawford Market (officially Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandai) is one of South Mumbai's most famous markets. The building was completed in 1869, and donated to the city by Cowasji Jehangir. Originally named after Arthur Crawford, the first Municipal ...
linked to the
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bombay station code: CSMT ( mainline)/ST ( suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was ...
anchoring the northern end and the Flora Fountain, forming the southern end of the Mile Long Road. The Flora Fountain was erected at the exact place where the Church gate (named after
St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai, is the 300-year old cathedral church of the Diocese of Mumbai of the Church of North India. It is named in honour of Saint Thomas the Apostle, who is believed to have first brought Christianity to India. The cathed ...
) stood before its demolition along with the Mumbai Fort. It was constructed by the Agri–Horticultural Society of Western India, out of a donation of Rs 20,000 by Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh. Designed by
Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
, it was sculpted in imported
Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
by James Forsythe. A white coat of
oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varn ...
has to some extent marred the antiquity of the structure. The fountain was originally to be named after Sir Bartle Frère, 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 ...
at the time, whose progressive policy had resulted in many of the great public buildings of Mumbai. However, the name was changed before the fountain was unveiled as Flora Fountain, named after
Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...
, a Roman Goddess of flowers and the season of spring; her majestic and pretty
Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
statue adorns the top of the fountain. The four corners of the fountain have four life-sized female mythological figures carrying foliage to represent the four seasons. The fountain was originally intended to be built at the Jijamata Udyaan at
Byculla Byculla (ISO: Bhāykhaḷā; pronunciation: ʱaːjkʰəɭaː is an area of South Mumbai. Location Byculla is neighboured by Nagpada and Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi on the west; Agripada, Jacob Circle on the north-west: Chinchpokli to the nor ...
but, in 1908, the grass plot and the palm trees that had camouflaged the fountain were cleared for creating space for pedestrians and horse–traffic between the
tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
lines and the kerb of the fountain.


Hutatma chowk

From the time the Flora Fountain was built in 1864 and until 1960, the chowk ( square) where five streets meet (hence, also known as the Piccadilly Circus of Mumbai) and the fountain stands now, was named as the Flora Fountain area. But in 1960, to commemorate the people who laid their lives in the turbulent birth of
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 ...
State at the square, it was renamed as the
Hutatma Chowk Hutatma Chowk ("Martyrs' Square, (Officially, Hutatma Smarak Chowk) ("Martyrs Memorial Square"), is a square in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The square hosts Flora Fountain and was known by that name until 1961 when it was officially ren ...
with a stone statue bearing a pair of torch-holding patriots. The Flora Fountain, surrounded by the British
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
heritage buildings, is very much part of the chowk and has been declared a heritage structure and it continues to charm visitors with its beauty and with its spray of water. It sits well alongside the Hutatma statue which adorns the chowk. (Picture depicts the two structures). It was the decision of the
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 memb ...
that recommended to the ''Government to take necessary steps to erect as early as possible a memorial at Flora Fountain in Bombay in commemoration of the sacrifices of the persons who died on the police firing at Flora Fountain in Bombay in the month of November 1955.''


Nostalgia

Nostalgic writing by a
cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, an unnamed resident of Mumbai who played street cricket in front of the fountain in his youth, reads that the fountain at the centre of the Mumbai city evokes feelings:
''The Centres of the world are well etched in the mind: the
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's Time Square and the
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
's Champs-Élysées,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
's Piccadilly Circus. Even now I feel a curious magic about Mumbai's Flora Fountain. We called it the heart of the city and so it was.''


Poetic expression

A
poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
in
Marathi language Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state o ...
by Niranajan Bhagat translated to
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
extols the beauty of the Flora Fountain thus:
A Glass and concrete jungle;
In its midst always
Quiet, comely,
With hope filled face,
she stands
Flora
A dream of spring in her matchless eyes,
holding in both hands stone flowers.
About her, in all corners,
Iron butterflies fly round and round
And lifeless insects play


Gallery

File:Flora fountain.jpg, Flora Fountain in Hutatma Chowk File:The Floral Fountain as it used to be, and Esplanade Road.jpg, The Flora Fountain, c. 1905 File:Flora fountain Bombay.jpg, Flora Fountain area, pre World War I File:Rush Hour flora.jpg, Traffic stream at Flora Fountain at night File:Mumbai Flora Fountain.jpg, Fountain in action at night File:Bombay15.jpg, Flora Fountain at Hutatma Chowk File:Flora Fountain - Mumbai.jpg, Goddess Flora in Flora Fountain File:Flora Fountain Pano.jpg, Panoramic view of Flora Fountain


References


External links

{{commons category, Flora Fountain
360° Panorama
Fountains in Mumbai Richard Norman Shaw buildings 1864 establishments in India Buildings and structures completed in 1864