Cooperage Bandstand, Heart of British Era Bombay’s Music Culture, 2 Postcards 1900
Two postcards of British-era Bombay’s Cooperage Bandstand. One of the postcards is from the 1900s, and the other is from the 1930s. The Cooperage Bandstand was a garden and maidan-based music pavilion situated within the Fort heritage precinct in British-era Bombay (Mumbai). The bandstand was located on the open, grassy spaces of the old Esplanade. Erected around 1867 by the Esplanade Fee Fund Committee, the wooden, octagonal, canopied structure was placed in the Cooperage Gardens. An integral part of the Fort heritage precinct. It reflects the social and cultural life of the colonial period, particularly the custom of playing music at such public structures
It was designed as a classic Victorian municipal park centerpiece. Every evening around 5 pm, crowds from all walks of life, British officials, local Indian elites, and common citizens gathered on benches under the shade of the garden to listen to the Governor’s Band or military brass ensembles. People enjoyed the gentle evening air sweeping across the wide, open maidans of Fort and Colaba. Click first image to enlarge.
Did you know – by the early 2010s, the ground level of the surrounding park had risen so much that the bandstand’s historic Porbandar stone plinth (base) was completely swallowed up and buried under the earth. When the civic body undertook its major restoration in 2017–2018, engineers literally had to excavate the ground to reveal the beautiful, hidden stone foundation that hadn’t been seen in decades.
