DN Road, where art thou?

Representative image

Of the many gems that Gillian Tindall, British urban historian, and author of City of Gold: The Biography of Bombay, reveals about our city in her encyclopaedic title, we found this one about Hornby Road, today's Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Road, particularly interesting in the context of today's column. She writes: "…you are actually walking on the very land which from the early eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, was occupied by a complex erection of walls, bastions and ravelins; when these were demolished in the 1860s, the modern roads were laid on the sites…"

This street named after William Hornby, Governor of Bombay (1771- 84), and later, after Dr Naoroji, the visionary statesman, law-maker and son of the city, was one of the earliest planned roads when the first signs of a developed city emerged to raise its image as a trading, financial and naval hub. The road, when ready, was opened in 1914, and linked Crawford Market (today's Mahatma Phule Market) to Flora Fountain/Hutatma Chowk via Victoria Terminus (today's CSMT). This key stretch, over time, became the address for important commercial and retail establishments - from department stores, to banks, booksellers and photo studios.

The DN Road streetscape might typically miss the glance of the rushed office-goer but look closer and one will notice how it offers a stunning, grid-like and continuous example of the arches-and-columns plan that salutes a mix of Neo-Classical and Gothic Revivalism, and hints of Indo-Saracenic influences. The main aim that planners of most of these structures sought to achieve was to offer respite for pedestrians from the intense sun and rain. How very thoughtful! In fact, while I was preparing a point-to-point draft of this stretch to write this column, I realised that a famous name joined it at both ends - F W Stevens. The far-sighted architect had designed Victoria Terminus as well as the Oriental Buildings that stands at the cusp where DN Road ends near Hutatma Chowk. Both these landmarks remain sterling reminders of a developing city, from the common man's perspective as well as a commercial standpoint.

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It is footnotes like these that further drive home the relevance of this once-broad avenue as far as the geography of the city goes.

It's nearly a hundred years since DN Road was opened. But recently, as I found myself gingerly treading around sections of this now-uprooted stretch with a dear friend and fellow city-worrier, it made us wonder if the original grandeur will ever be restored once the Metro Line is up and running in these parts. What the future holds for most of the landmark stores and establishments housed in these arcaded buildings, as well as the countless pavement vendors is anyone's guess. Reports in this newspaper came rushing back - of the impact of underground drilling that shook the foundations of several heritage buildings - many of which are Grade II structures, including the JN Petit Library (UNESCO Award of Distinction, 2015), and Vatcha Agiary, to name a few. Shop owners rued the loss of walk-ins and thus business during peak hours because of the endless barricades and lack of access from the main road. Their plight has already been ruined by the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

Back in 2004, the Dadabhai Naoroji Road Heritage Streetscape Project was conferred with the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award of Merit for the successful implementation of its conservation. I recall how it was one of the first such initiatives for an entire road in the city. The ‘Heritage Mile' made news for all the right reasons, offered a great fillip to the idea, and acted as a propeller for similar initiatives by putting the spotlight on how effective collaborations between multiple stakeholders can reap rich rewards. The irony is that this same decorated stretch appears to be threatened as this public infrastructure project races to its final leg.

The manner in which the visual character of this entire streetscape has been disrupted for the Metro Line leaves a cloud of doubt over what plans are being drawn out when it comes to restoring the original character [is this even possible?!] of this stretch when services commence, and as the eye adjusts to a new visual layer being added to the original road. Frames of the now-permanently and drastically changed vista of Bengaluru's famed MG Road as a result of the elevated Metro Line come to mind. Ask any true-blue Bangalorean, and they will admit how the view that they would once proudly boast about in front of out-of-towners, has been messed up forever.
Of course, like many other city folk, I am wishing and praying that our fate won't be the same, and that the streetscape will be spared of a shoddy copy-paste version of the original. We expect better from the heritage experts and babus who we hope are able to realise the value of this road's multiple histories.

Even dear ole Dadabhai Naoroji, who sits at his imposing black pedestal by the end of the road must be silently hoping that the city's civic authorities who with great pride had once dedicated this well-planned street in his honour, will take the sensitive route to preserve and reinstate its past glory when operations commence on this stretch.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana

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