I am keeping a years-ago promise to myself. From 1990 when I dropped off articles for Parsiana and Voyage magazines at Jehangir Patel's publishing offices at Fort, within the indolently named Parsi Lying-in Hospital. I should profile the eight edifices flanking this lane, I'd thought, admiring the 19th- century example hugging Prescott Road's north tip. Years on, I explore these beauties dating well over a century, some with more prominent entrances on parallel Murzban Road. Why was this stretch, now Ghanshyam Talwatkar Marg, initially Prescott Road? Sailing to India to start a school for girls, prim-looking Mary Prescott held progressive views. The Englishwoman established JB Petit High School for Girls, facing Prescott Road, in 1860. Called Miss Prescott's Fort Christian School, the school's current name owes to Jehangir Bomanji Petit providing timely financial aid in 1915 when it might have fused with the Cathedral Girls' School.

Advocate Erach Kotwal, gallerist Shireen Gandhy and media consultant Vivek Suchanti outside Queens Mansion on Prescott Road. Pic/BIPIN KOKATE