HERITAGE MILE TURNS THE CORNER
Many Of D N Roads Elegant Buildings Need A Facelift. Now LIC, Which Owns Several Properties In Fort, Signals A Shift …Sunil Nair | TNN
Mumbai: The National Insurance Building sits amidst a row of elegant, albeit decaying, pre-World War I structures. A wooden staircase with brass-coated balustrades and old-fashioned Minton tiles on the landings leads you to the thirdfloor residence of Gopal Dudhia, a former UN official. Its a sprawling flat Dudhia inherited from his father, the owner of an insurance firm prior to nationalisation. Back then, the upper storeys along what was Hornby Row had windy, westfacing apartments with separate lifts and servant quarters to house directors of companies. Today, Dudhia opens up a window to point out ramshackle sheds that have encroached in an alley next door. If you look closely, the neighbourhood is shabby. But these things are hidden when you just walk past on the main road, he sighs.
A sought-after address among insurers and bankers in the pre-Independence era, D N Road has gradually faded into the backdrop of economic activity. Once home to British institutions looking to profit from commodity speculation in the East, it has now been eclipsed by the glitzy Nariman Point and Bandra-Kurla Complex. The streets been taken over by illegal hawkers selling pirated CDs; the ornamentation on the buildings has been defaced due to poor maintenance; even prostitution has emerged as a menace.
Of course, corporate funding and pride in architectural heritage have given some pockets a refurbished look. For instance, the buildings housing Standard Chartered Bank and Thomas Cook have seen a spruce-up that has helped remove hoardings and cracks, and put the shine back on neo-classical features. Empire Hotel similarly received a facelift and the Tatas funded the reconstruction of Eruckshaw Building, which was gutted in a fire. Now, the latest such initiative has come from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, which is planning to restore Oriental Building, the oldest of the structures here.
We are keen to do it, we have a report that talks about what is essential and what is desirable. But we have to see how much we can spend, said LIC officials on condition of anonymity. Sources said the project could cost upwards of Rs 1 crore.
The Oriental plan signals a trend that may lead to significant changes in the precinct, primarily because LIC owns several properties on D N Road, including Oriental, Jeevan Udyog (better known as Khadi Bhandar) and the National Insurance building. Most of them came into LICs possession after the government in 1956 took over the management of 240-odd private insurance firms based in India.
LIC now owns 15-20 buildings in the Fort area, said an official. But the corporation has hitherto remained an absentee landlord owing to poor returns from tenants protected by rent control laws. Now, following long years of neglect, indications are that it may finally take up restoration work on the buildings in a phase-wise manner.
THE DECLINE
Popularly known as the Heritage Mile, D N Road showcases an architectural legacy, which recalls the pre-war chapters in Mumbais history. Structures here, mostly built in the boom years from 1885 to 1910, were allowed diverse styles, but under strict design control. The singular quality is the elevation and the facade over the footpath along the western side: it was mandatory for all buildings to be the same height as well as have an arcade opening up over the pavement. This was to provide a certain unity to the overall look of the street. Many also have certain crowning features like a pyramidal rooftop, says conservation architect Vikas Dilawari.
The problem has been the pattern of ownership. Built on plots leased for 99 years for token sums, which varied from one rupee to several hundreds, the structures now need lease renewals from the BMC. But civic policy mandates these leases to be renewed at 1% of the current market value.
Rates have gone up by 1,000 times the earlier cost of the lease, admitted a BMC estate officer. Given the fancy sums involved, owners are resisting. To add to the confusion, most like LIC have let out portions to tenants who pay meagre rent and are protected under an old law. In addition, there are also those tenants who carve up space and rent it out to offices or shops to create sub-tenants, says Dhutia.
The maze of tenancies and subtenancies has resulted in an undistinguishable mix of establishments that range from banks, footwear shops, bookstores to fire temples and mosques. Consensus on upkeep and maintenance is clearly elusive: most buildings do not even have security guards because tenants and owners cannot come to an agreement. If you have different kinds of tenants, it does become difficult to carry out a clean-up, says Brinda Somaya, an architect and member of the civic panel overseeing the maintenance of heritage structures. Single institutional owners like a school or a bank are in a better position to do it.
In LICs case, the job at Oriental should be easy as it has only two tenants, American Express Bank and Oriental Insurance. But on premises like National Insurancewhich houses 32 of themthe process could be lengthy.
Indeed, the challenges of restoration are daunting along most of D N Road because shops, restaurants and stalls are spilling out of the facades, backyards and underneath staircases. Laws are routinely flouted, says Dhutia. You may call it a heritage precinct, but people cant even walk on the pavement.
The rest of the structures sprung up in the two decades between 1900 and 1920, all built on plots leased out by the municipal corporation for small sums. Many of them were designed by noted architects of the time, including the firm of Gostling and Morris and F W Stevens, the master designer of the CST building, which is considered a Gothic masterpiece.
The street was originally named after an intrepid British Governor, William Hornby (1771-1784), who defied the East India Company and spent an unbudgeted sum to build a seawall near Worli. The wall helped plug the Great Breach and give the city almost one-third extra landmass.
Apart from the Standard Building, other noteworthy structures on the street include the J N Petit Institute. A neo-classical structure, it was completed in 1898 at a cost of Rs 2,29,000. The building, which housed a library and reading room, was commissioned by Bai Dinbaijee Nussarwanjee Petit as a memorial to her son and husband.
A sought-after address among insurers and bankers in the pre-Independence era, D N Road has gradually faded into the backdrop of economic activity. Once home to British institutions looking to profit from commodity speculation in the East, it has now been eclipsed by the glitzy Nariman Point and Bandra-Kurla Complex. The streets been taken over by illegal hawkers selling pirated CDs; the ornamentation on the buildings has been defaced due to poor maintenance; even prostitution has emerged as a menace.
Of course, corporate funding and pride in architectural heritage have given some pockets a refurbished look. For instance, the buildings housing Standard Chartered Bank and Thomas Cook have seen a spruce-up that has helped remove hoardings and cracks, and put the shine back on neo-classical features. Empire Hotel similarly received a facelift and the Tatas funded the reconstruction of Eruckshaw Building, which was gutted in a fire. Now, the latest such initiative has come from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, which is planning to restore Oriental Building, the oldest of the structures here.
We are keen to do it, we have a report that talks about what is essential and what is desirable. But we have to see how much we can spend, said LIC officials on condition of anonymity. Sources said the project could cost upwards of Rs 1 crore.
The Oriental plan signals a trend that may lead to significant changes in the precinct, primarily because LIC owns several properties on D N Road, including Oriental, Jeevan Udyog (better known as Khadi Bhandar) and the National Insurance building. Most of them came into LICs possession after the government in 1956 took over the management of 240-odd private insurance firms based in India.
LIC now owns 15-20 buildings in the Fort area, said an official. But the corporation has hitherto remained an absentee landlord owing to poor returns from tenants protected by rent control laws. Now, following long years of neglect, indications are that it may finally take up restoration work on the buildings in a phase-wise manner.
THE DECLINE
Popularly known as the Heritage Mile, D N Road showcases an architectural legacy, which recalls the pre-war chapters in Mumbais history. Structures here, mostly built in the boom years from 1885 to 1910, were allowed diverse styles, but under strict design control. The singular quality is the elevation and the facade over the footpath along the western side: it was mandatory for all buildings to be the same height as well as have an arcade opening up over the pavement. This was to provide a certain unity to the overall look of the street. Many also have certain crowning features like a pyramidal rooftop, says conservation architect Vikas Dilawari.
The problem has been the pattern of ownership. Built on plots leased for 99 years for token sums, which varied from one rupee to several hundreds, the structures now need lease renewals from the BMC. But civic policy mandates these leases to be renewed at 1% of the current market value.
Rates have gone up by 1,000 times the earlier cost of the lease, admitted a BMC estate officer. Given the fancy sums involved, owners are resisting. To add to the confusion, most like LIC have let out portions to tenants who pay meagre rent and are protected under an old law. In addition, there are also those tenants who carve up space and rent it out to offices or shops to create sub-tenants, says Dhutia.
The maze of tenancies and subtenancies has resulted in an undistinguishable mix of establishments that range from banks, footwear shops, bookstores to fire temples and mosques. Consensus on upkeep and maintenance is clearly elusive: most buildings do not even have security guards because tenants and owners cannot come to an agreement. If you have different kinds of tenants, it does become difficult to carry out a clean-up, says Brinda Somaya, an architect and member of the civic panel overseeing the maintenance of heritage structures. Single institutional owners like a school or a bank are in a better position to do it.
In LICs case, the job at Oriental should be easy as it has only two tenants, American Express Bank and Oriental Insurance. But on premises like National Insurancewhich houses 32 of themthe process could be lengthy.
Indeed, the challenges of restoration are daunting along most of D N Road because shops, restaurants and stalls are spilling out of the facades, backyards and underneath staircases. Laws are routinely flouted, says Dhutia. You may call it a heritage precinct, but people cant even walk on the pavement.
FROM HORNBY ROW TO D N ROAD
The rest of the structures sprung up in the two decades between 1900 and 1920, all built on plots leased out by the municipal corporation for small sums. Many of them were designed by noted architects of the time, including the firm of Gostling and Morris and F W Stevens, the master designer of the CST building, which is considered a Gothic masterpiece.
The street was originally named after an intrepid British Governor, William Hornby (1771-1784), who defied the East India Company and spent an unbudgeted sum to build a seawall near Worli. The wall helped plug the Great Breach and give the city almost one-third extra landmass.
Apart from the Standard Building, other noteworthy structures on the street include the J N Petit Institute. A neo-classical structure, it was completed in 1898 at a cost of Rs 2,29,000. The building, which housed a library and reading room, was commissioned by Bai Dinbaijee Nussarwanjee Petit as a memorial to her son and husband.
LANGUISHING LEGACY: Pedestrians are forced to use the road (top) as the pavement under the D N Road arcade is taken over by hawkers; Kitab Mahal (right) is symbolic of the neglect shown by civic authorities and landlordsthe building is crumbling and the plots been encroached on; Oriental Building (left) will see a restoration, thanks to LIC
