Back Bay Swimming Bath British Era Bombay, 1900 Photo
A 1900 photo of a rare scene of Back Bay Swimming Bath in the British era in Bombay (Mumbai). Two men probably Parsi members and an Indian attendant look on from the Back Bay Swimming Bath Club. As the British Empire spread, so did the culture of exclusive clubs, usually segregated for Europeans and Indians.
One such club was the swimming bath club which were seawater pools, the trend began in the 1870s by the Europeans in Bombay. The first of these seawater pools began with five acres of donated land. This was in the Breach Candy area, which was still largely wild a shed was used as a bathhouse. However, by the end of the 19th century bungalows and mansions slowly popped up in Breach Candy.
Hindus swam in the Pransukhlal Mehta Mafatlal Hindu Swimming Pool and Boat Club in Chowpatty. Parsis were at the Golwala Bath in Back Bay, and Europeans at the Breach Candy Swimming Bath Trust on Warden Road. These clubs had swimming pools, but only for the privileged, financial, and hereditary elites of Bombay. The Back Bay Swimming Bath perhaps was renamed the Victoria Swimming Bath during the 1920s. Click on the image to enlarge view.
Did you know – that today, the Breach Candy Club, the Willingdon Club and the Bombay Gymkhana form the “Big 3”, the top private clubs of Mumbai.
Past posts – Beautiful British India Era Oil Painting 1887., Parvati Hill Pune – Old Postcard 1910., The Elephants of The Rajah of Travancore, 1858 Print., Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Toy Train 1900.