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The Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly known as Victoria station is a popular landmark,
“World heritage Site’ Declared by UNESCO and is a fine example of Victorian Gothic
Revival Architecture in India. It was designed by the British Architect F.W Stevens, who
named it ‘Victoria’ in the honor of Queen Victoria. The construction of this building and
took over a period of 10 years, starting from 1878 and was released in 1887, the year of
Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The station took the longest time period of that era to
build it, but time was worth to create one of the finest examples of colonial architecture.

Frederick William Stevens designed Victoria Terminus according to a High Victorian

Gothic design based on late medieval Italian models. British architects decided to work
with Indian workers to include Indian architectural traditions and thus an outstanding
example of Victorian Gothic Architectural Revival in India, blended with the themes derived
from Indian Traditional Architecture was created. The skyline, turrets, pointed archways,
and peculiar ground plan are close to traditional Indian palace architecture in a unique
way, even though they are Gothic Revival Elements.
The land required for the station and terminus was estimated to be about 80 acres and the
construction cost was of Rs.16, 13, 863/- for the offices and Rs. 10, 40,248/- For the
station. F.W. Stevens, also designed Royal Alfred Sailor’s Home (now Mumbai Police
Headquarter), the Municipal Corporation Building and Oriental building at Flora Fountain.
Also Victoria Terminus was the first ever train station of India and was called Bori Bandar
station before the construction of the majestic building. Its route was Bori Bandar to
Thane.
 St. Pancras
The Victoria Terminus has quite a resemblance to St. Pancras
Station in London and both the stations have Gothic
Architecture, a style commonly found in the 18th and
19th c entury monuments of Mumbai.

INCIDENTS
On 26 November 2008, two Pakistani terrorists armed with weapons entered the
passenger hall of the Victoria Terminus, opened fire and threw grenades at people. One of
the terrorists, Ajmal Kasab (now hanged to death), was later caught alive by the police and
identified by eyewitnesses. Fifty-eight people died here; more than 100 were injured. Few
civilians had seen the insides of the five-star hotels that were also attacked, but everyone
had walked on the platforms that were seen bloodied in news reports. The popularity of
has much to do with its location – it connects the administrative and business centre of the
city with its residential suburbs. 
POPULARITY
In 2008, the station was featured significantly in the Award winning bollywood film,
Slumdog-Millionaire. And later in another bollywood film “Ra.One” where with visual
graphics the station was destroyed.
Architecture
The building is ‘C’ Shaped and symmetrically designed at about the east-west axis. This
symmetrically beauty is crowned by high central dome which acts as a focal point around
which the building is built. At the ends of this building are two wings which enclose the
courtyard and open at the road for public entrance. There are four turrets on the four
corners of each wing to balance and frame the central dome.
 The main entrance includes ornate wooden doors and craved
marble pillars which lead to the elegant staircase, risen grandly
towards to Central dome and slabs of blue Italian stone with
beautifully shaped iron railing.
The usage of different colored stone gave a stunning
appearance, and carvings in white limestone with contrasting
gray basalt stone were used for detailing the dome. The main
structure was built using yellow malad stone and red sandstone
limestone.

The base of the central dome is a square plan and it is built cleverly to form at Octagonal
rib at it reaches the Apex. The space between the stone ribs of the dome is filled in with
long stone slabs, to give a horizontal stepped effect. These ribs are taken up and
terminated at an apex, which forms 'Progress' Statue. The interior of the dome is open and
exposed to the ground floor and on the exterior each buttresses of the dome follow
upwards finish into a pinnacle.
The crowning point of the whole building is the central main
dome carrying up as a finial at its apex, a colossal 16'6''
high figure of a lady pointing a flaming torch upwards in her
right hand, and a spoked wheel low in the left hand,
symbolizing 'Progress'.
There are other pieces of statuary, one representing
'Agriculture' on the central gable on the south side and one
each on two gables of the wings of the west facade
representing ' Engineering & Science' & 'Shipping &
Commerce'.
 There are many other embellishments like gargoyles,
grotesques and figures of animals on the walls of the
building. In addition, there are a large number of bass-
reliefs and ornamental friezes more attractive than the
statuary decorates the facade. The ceilings of the
building are very high and the arches make the
interior look like a grand Cathedral.
The west front, approached
by a grand gateway and sculptures of a lion and tiger forms three
sides of a square with a courtyard between the two wings, the Lion
and Tiger figures at the entrance of the terminus represent the
countries Britain and India respectively. Below the statue of Lion
and tiger figures is a plate to represent the Victoria Terminus as
‘World Heritage Monument’.

Many of the sculptures on the exterior and interiors like tessellated floor, dados of glazed
tiles, stained glass windows, galleries of highly ornamented iron of Victoria Terminus were
made by Indian students of JJ School of Arts in Mumbai, under the guidance of John
Lockwood Kipling, author Rudyard Kipling’s father.
Another smart yet beautiful work to the
Victoria Terminus is colorful stained
glass portholes on the window arches
on Platform 1 you walk past without
noticing are installed to protect the
structure’s interiors from direct sunlight
and evidently have done a wonderful
job.
Even today, the terminus continues to play a significant role in the life of thousands of local
railway commuters. The building is a must on the journey of tourists from all over the world
visiting the city. In time, Victoria Terminus came to be considered as one of the finest
station in the world.
As days pass by, a building to have a constant slow degradation and minor damages from
harsh climate and environmental issue is expected, but in case of Victoria Terminus
building, due to over stressing building services such as maintenance, water supply,
electricity, sanitary, fire fighting, air-conditioning , waste disposal have caused major
degradation and water seepage through columns, pillars, partitions have worsened the
condition of the building.
The filled arches, full height partitions, un-necessary storage, water tanks cause poor
ventilation and obstruct the natural light, which cause the building retains humidity leading
to dampness and unhygienic conditions. This later leads to problems like cracks, rotting
wood, peeling of paint and plaster etc. Also the unused area in the building has turned into
a dumping place for variable storage has brought great discomfort to the public and
insufficient space or odd locations for parking is also one of the big concerns.
Changing the flooring often has also caused damaged structurally to the building and
gives a non uniform appearance. The grand central staircase is extensively used and the
corner staircases are quite unnecessary now they are inadvertently used as solid garbage
channel. The yellow malad stones and red sandstone lime stone used on all elevations to
enhance the beauty of the building are now unevenly stained and the architectural
elements are hidden due to inconsistent additions and alterations caused due to emergent
necessities.
The action of wind and rain along with atmospheric pollution has affected the limestone
badly. The stone is darkly stained and the surface is brittle, this needs attention. Hence a
clear master plan is required to upgrade the building services which include the Electrical
System, Plumbing and sanitation, the Fire regulations and Air conditioning system.
There are several physically interlinked problems,
mostly related to roof leakage, which is indeed a
crisis situation. One can see that the leakage has
caused wood rotting, peeling of plaster and a host of
other related problems.
The recent damage to the building is the broken jaw
of the Tiger statue which represents India, and more
concerns are that there will be further damage to it.
In totality it can be summed that the Heritage building is in excellent shape structurally
except few damages while the architecture, despite the pollution and overuse, continues to
behold its status in the urban setting of Mumbai. It is the areas of adequate and
sympathetic use, modern building services and attention to systematic and professionally
managed restoration programmes followed with training to the in-house staff which require
to be taken cognizance of immediately.

As per the maintenance of this grand building, it is a big responsibility of the head of this
staff as the Area is enormous and the restoration of the materials is also a major concern.
When the head of the maintenance staff was asked about the maintenance and
restoration process of the building and what chemical and compounds were used, they
said they completely disapprove of using any chemicals as it might damage the limestone
and make it weak and brittle and it would kill the purpose of restoration, only high pressure
water is used for cleaning and any type of other compound is to be avoided.
Subway

Now I described the details and the construction work of the heart of Bombay, Victoria
Terminus, well known for its unique gothic beauty blended with authentic Indian traditional
Architecture and praised by numerous people. Recently, about a few years ago a subway
was constructed connected to the Victoria Terminus, and many people had range of
different opinions towards it.

In September 1999, Brihamin Mumbai Subway was started by BMC which was adjoined to
the Victoria Terminus, but just in few coming year a lot of problems clashes started arising
according to the design, structure, plan and hygiene of this new Subway.

With research I got enough reviews, articles and interviews, I got some knowledge about
the current state about the design and comfort
of the Subway, and history during the time it
was constructed.

The Subway was built over 2870 sq meter and

tinted polycarbonated sheets were used to give
it a gothic architectural look for it to compliment
the Victoria Terminus, the cost of this project
was a huge amount of 15 crore.

Photo resource - www.abinet.org

During that time, the Brihamin Mumbai Subway Project was accepted quickly because of
short of time, so there are many people doubting if this project was accepted genuinely
after looking at all the aspects on the Subway like the Victoria Terminus was finished by
perfection of every corner.

An experienced employee of the BMC thinks otherwise, she completely accepts this
project. She feels the work and design of the Subway compliments gothic architecture of
The Victoria Terminus very well. She believes that in order to match the magnificence of
the Victoria Terminus station to the subway there is no necessity to built the subway using
stones and heritage material as they wouldn’t be friendly and since the Subway project
was already expensive she believes that it would only raise the amount of this project even
more, and using contemporary would be the best since it wouldn’t affect the travelling
purpose of daily commuters. She also points due to the irregularity of the maintenance of
the Subway and unsuitable weather conditions the tinted sheets which were originally
Brown, now have turned an odd color of grey-white.

There were many people who still disapproved of the Subway; therefore the Heritage
Committee of BMC considered redesigning the area around Victoria Terminus. Architect
Mr. Ratan Bhalwankar, in 2001 had proposed revamping the entire area adjoining the
station. He suggested that construction materials that gel with the colonial architectural
style of the building be used, instead of polycarbonate sheets. But since this idea seemed
too decorative so it was later rejected and the designs were not approved of.

One of the head of Municipal Architecture Department, Mr. Bhavsar, feels things should
adapt to the current state of affairs.
He states “The Gothic Architecture suited that era, and to consider recreating something
built in 1878 would be practically not possible. Since the Victoria Terminus which was
designed by the British people, considering the time and population of that period it won’t
be suitable in current period of increasing population by each day. Fulfilling the basic
needs and the convenience of people is the priority and the subway is designed the way it
should be, the appearance of the Subway is secondary.

It is true that the appearance of the Subway should be secondary and needs and fulfilling
the basic needs is the most important,- ‘ A book shouldn’t be judged by its cover’, but it
gets more problematic when even the essential requirements of the commuters aren’t
taken care of.
The poorly-ventilated pathway has become a breeding ground for skin infections and
respiratory disorders; the stuffy subway seems to be causing skin infections in a number of
people, especially those working in the stalls. The rail users have said reacting to this
arising problem, urban designer Harshad Bhatia said, "Architecturally, we have to study if
the sick building syndrome is at work. If it is air-conditioned, it may be cool. But fresh air is
not introduced as the same air is circulated. In such a scenario, disease is likely to
spread.''

A Central Railway commuter said, "I am a regular traveler, but I always avoid the subway.
I can feel the heat even when I pass by. The BMC should use the space on the walls to
put up fans instead of those huge hoardings.''
Another commuter said, “I travel on daily basis, but lately I
have been staying away from the subway, as there is no
proper ventilation; only leakages can be observed in the
subway which I feel should be plugged and the entire
interior of the subway should be changed.'' 

Another Architect Ms Gharat, working with the BMC departments is concerned about the
Ventilation of the Subway and says plans are underway to introduce forced draft
ventilation to draw in fresh air through a duct. There a lot of things that need to be taken
care of before this project and factors such a budget, comfort of the commuters,
maintenance, opinions of architects, durability and many more. She also told us few
incidents at the Victoria building which were very upsetting for a heritage monument, that
because of using high quality material for public properties, lower middle class people
sometimes do tend to indulge in to robbery of these items, which why is usage of heritage
material is forbidden, these stolen goods are later sold in black market for money. Truth is
bitter and even embarrassing, but such incidences do occur which is why interiors and
exteriors of a structure are made as per the function and requirement. Concerning about
the maintenance, Even if extra money was spent for stones and heritage materials for
interior and exterior to give a gothic appearance to it, due to irregular maintenance it
wouldn’t be the same down years and might even corrode away.
Another architect thinks that the Subway is not as modern as people claim it to be, he
believes that the structure of the Subway has a gothic appearance to it from the tinted
glasses and the arches which reflects the Victorian Architecture very well to compliment
the Subway to the beauty of Victoria terminus.
Due to the regular criticism of the passengers and avoiding the Subway because of its
technically problems and unhygienic conditions, the Heritage Committee of BMC is plans
on improving the basic facilities for the commuters according to their comfort and also
considering redesigning exterior of the Subway and the area around Victoria Terminus to
do justice to this majestic structure. As many architects disapprove the design and the also
committee believes the subway, with its contemporary ‘industrial’ look, seems more like a
forced extension of the terminus rather than a part of it.
Mr. Srinivas said “We are also looking at its functionality and the facilities we can offer
pedestrians here. The new designs make way for better lighting and ventilation in the
subway, which is currently quite dark and claustrophobic,”
Mr. S O Kori, chief engineer of bridges department says “We recently asked the architects
to re-submit the designs and have made some improvements on the features for lighting
and ventilation. Our aim is to beautify both the exterior and interior. Once the plans are
finalized, we will approach the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee for a no-
objection certificate.”
The proposed designs are changing the funnels which no more look tinted brown rather
unappealing black and barely bring out a gothic look and replacing exhaust ducts with a
structure with much more attractive tiles and arches. The entry and exit points for the
subway will be revamped to include sculpted arches and pillars.
To revamp the Subway, the Brihamin Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has
expanded its budget to one third of its construction cost at Rs 2-3 crore and are hoping for
a better review once the Subway is reconstructed.
As I said earlier there are many people with different opinion towards the adjoined
Subway, but only few plans have moved ahead and gotten accepted during this process
and are yet to finalize, but as years pass by people might comment saying on present
modern architecture style which would be old and boring by then or it could be the New-
old just like how the gothic architecture of Victoria Terminus still lives, it depends on the
perspective of the spectator.
I believe to recreate something so magnificent Indo-gothic architecture constructed more
than 100 years ago wouldn’t be easy but also creating a contemporary design for a
subway to compliment the Victoria Terminus in every possible way be a challenging work
for the architects. Though which ever style is chosen to create, the end result would be a
sight worth watching.