Horse-Drawn Tram At Kalbadevi British Era Bombay, 1890 Photo
An 1890 photo of a horse-drawn tram at Kalbadevu during the British era in Bombay (Mumbai). At the time, the street looked almost deserted, devoid of any heavy traffic or jostling crowds. A lone horse-drawn tram is apparently on its destined run. What was once a quaint, picturesque street looked surreally unhurried and uncrowded, far from what it looks like today.
Kalbadevi is in the neighbourbood of CSMT in the south, the port in the east, Opera House in the north, and Marine Drive in the west. The East India Company encouraged skilled traders from other parts of India to settle down in Bombay in the 1860s. One of the places chosen by the migrant population was Kalbadevi. The slow horse-drawn tram gave way to the electric tram in 1907. Click on the photo to enlarge.
Read more on Kalbadevi in Mumbai.
Did you know – according to 19th-century reports, tigers were still seen in the Bombay suburbs during the 1840s-50s. One was seen in the densely populated area of Kalbadevi as late as 1859 and another at Malabar Hill.
Past posts – Raja Ravi Varma’s Inspiring Models – 3 Postcards 1900., Fishermen’s Catamaran In Madras – Old Postcard 1905., Queen Victoria’s Delhi Durbar 1877, Old Print.
