Fountain of progress ………Hemen Kapadia
The Flora Fountain was constructed in memory of former Governor of Bombay Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, who greatly contributed towards city’s economic development
The Flora Fountain was constructed in memory of former Governor of Bombay Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, who greatly contributed towards city’s economic development
Situated in the heart of south Mumbai, there exists this beautiful stone structure – the Flora Fountain – on Dr D N Road. This structure was actually constructed in the honour of Sir Bartle Frere (the Governor of Bombay).
Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere was one of the few forward-looking statesmen of the Victorian age who spent most of his career in India to finally become the Governor of Bombay in the 1860s (1862 to 1867), which he managed with utmost distinction. In fact, he not only was a liberal thinker who worked towards economic development, but he had also played a major part in the actual self-discovery (read as progress) of Bombay (he was majorly responsible for dismantling the Bombay Fort and making Mumbai what it is today) and even Karachi for that matter.
An out-of-the-box thinker, Frere was a leading opponent of slavery and took great pains to see that he preserved the heritage and religion of India even at the risk of locking horns with his own countrymen who wanted to Christianise the sub-continent.
He was appointed as High Commissioner for South Africa in 1877, but a fostering enmity with William Ewart Gladstone (who held the post of PM of Britain four times in 1868, 1880, 1886, 1892) saw him being disgracefully sacked for starting the Anglo Zulu war of 1879.
Located on Dadabhai Naoroji Road – formerly known as Hornby Road named in memory of the Governor of Bombay William Hornby (1723 to 1803) who built a seawall near Worli to prevent flooding of low-lying areas at the risking of offending the East India Company – the fountain was built in 1864 in a prime business district in in the heart of south Mumbai and actually depicts the Roman Goddess of Flowers – ‘Flora’.
Designed by an English architect, R Norman Shaw, it is made up of imported ‘Portland Stone’ (a lime stone quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, which has been used to build the St Paul’s Cathedral, the Buckingham Palace and even the United Nations headquarters in New York) while the exquisite sculpture was made by James Forsythe. Although, initially, the square was known as Frere Fountain, it was finally named as Flora Fountain (this unexpected development somehow took place just before its inauguration).
Originally constructed at a cost of £9,000 (equivalent to a princely sum of Rs 47,000), the fountain stands exactly at the point where the original Church Gate of Bombay Fort stood during that time.The construction was commenced at the behest of the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India but a magnanimous donation of Rs 20,000 from Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh went a long way in financing the construction.
Flora Fountain, was also known as Mumbai’s Piccadilly Circus (a famous road junction which was built in 1819 and named after the house of a tailor known as Robert Baker who was famous for selling piccadillies or collars) because of the fact that five streets meet at this point.
Flora Fountain was renamed to Hutatma Chowk (Martyr’s Square) in 1960 in memory of 105 people who were martyred when a peaceful demonstration of the ‘Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti’ was fired upon by the police. This led to the creation of the state of Maharashtra on 1st May 1960 from the erstwhile bi-lingual state of Bombay (read as Gujarat included). A stone statue depicting a pair of torch holding patriots as a poignant memory of the tragic incident has also has been added to the square.
Next Week – The fifth part of a close look at some of the historical landmarks near the BSE.