Royal Alfred Sailor’s Home In Bombay, 1900 Photo
A 1900 photograph of the Royal Alfred Sailor’s Home in Bombay (Mumbai). Today, the Royal Alfred Sailor’s Home building is occupied by the Maharashtra Police Headquarters. The building is often confused with the Mumbai Police Headquarters building. It was completed in 1876 and was designed by the famous architect F W Stevens, in fact, it was his first major architectural assignment, before the commissioning of the famous Victoria Terminus (now known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus).
Srevens also designed several magnificent structures in the city, one of which was the Municipal Corporation Building. The Royal Alfred Sailor’s Home was built to house European officers and sailors alike during the British-India era. It was named in honour of Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Interestingly, a Horse-drawn tram and bullock carts can be seen in front of the Home, which was known as the Wellington Circle. Click image to enlarge.
Did you know – Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, supervised the ornamental carvings of the building. In the same way, as he did for the Crawford Market building.
