If time were a place

Sitting in the living room of her Peddar Road home Marlboro House Pushpa Palat says the only time they gave the tiles of their apartment one of seven in the 1938built building a deep clean was when they purchased it in 1998 Since then they have only washed them with water No floor cleaners If theres a stain you scrub it and over time it will go But I had been warned early on not to apply any chemicals to the flooring says Palat author and journalist Youd think that the tiles then would reflect the wear and tear The house after all as Palat insists is child and dogfriendly Yet the only thing that the tiles reflect is the abundant sunlight from the large windowsThat Palat and her husband Raghu a banker are proud of the heritage of the house would be an understatement They reel off its history as they take us on a tour Built by British architect Claude Batleymdashwhose other works in the city include Bombay Gymkhana Lincoln House and Bombay Central Stationmdashthey say the house has been built in Art Deco style and was initially made for a German lady who didnt end up staying because she had to leave the country during World War II Interestingly each room has the tiles laid out differently In fact each apartment in the building sports different styles says Palat Unfortunately we cant see that for ourselves because all other residents have replaced them with modern onesMarlboro House at Peddar Road is home to Raghu and Pushpa Palat Atul Kumar Founder Art Deco Mumbai Trust says that in terms of design what set Art Deco tiles apart was the unique geometry directionality and nautical elements incorporated For instance if you look at the flooring in marble at the Churchgates Empress Court lobby it is abstract Within it there is a big black arrow pointing into the gate of the lift says Kumar adding that even inside apartments one often finds design indicators leading to different rooms The colours were vibrant because Art Deco was a reflection of early modernism It was flamboyant some even call it loud There were blacks greys maroon red yellow The first floor of Court View building opposite Oval Maidan for instance is a riot of colours he adds PicsPradeep DhivarThe Palats arent Mumbais only residents who have a thingfortiles At Colaba art gallery Tarq an exhibition by artist Vishwa Shroff uses tiles found in Mumbais buildings as a tool to speculate on how time and architecture collide For the exhibition called Folly Measures text written by Veeranganakumari Solanki states Recontextualization and reconstruction of time and change are meticulously recorded in the details of mismatched tiles landings residues and linesFloors become pattern libraries of interruption while worn tiles become a chronicle of chanced memories Architectural features become the carriers of change and time frames Material compositions from changing fads of marble concrete kota stone to mosaic tiles banisters and old walls each tells a story from a chapter in timeShroff 39 says that tiles take on time well They have scratches and other time markers and are vulnerable Thats what interests me For this part of her exhibition she made multiple visits to buildings between Navy Nagar where she lives and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus observing the tiles on the staircase landings She has also recorded where her view has been blocked due to the placement of furniture Which buildings these are Shroff will not say Hena Kapadia Tarqs gallery director says they have had residents of the buildings come to the exhibition and not realise what lies beneath their feetTehmi Terrace was built in 1914 Historian Heta Pandit whose family owns the Turner Road structure says it was renamed after her grandmother Tehmina Rustamjee Patel when the family moved here in 1942 The Grade III heritage structure says Pandit has been built in vernacular style while the essential style is inspired by British architecture it was built by a Maharashtrian and sports certain Indian features The floors have Minton tiles in the living room and local clay tiles in the passage areas PicsAshish RajeVishwa Shroff at her exhibition Folly Measures at Tarq PicAshish RajeDhuru Lodge on Dadars Swatantra Veer Savarakar Road has been around since the 1800s The house was built by our great grandfather Cassinath Dhurus father Deoji says Ajit Dhuru a retired media professional In the 1930s the property had a stable for horses as that was the popular mode of transport Built in typical British villa style the house was in the mid1990s included in the heritage list as a Grade D structure However in a later revision of the list it was taken off The tiles says Variava are clay tiles possibly imported from England PicsPradeep DhivarWorld history impacted Mumbai tile choiceFirdaus Variava of Bharat Floorings and Tiles explains that the earliest tiles in Mumbai were those made of natural stone In the 1930s we got terrazzomdasha composite material poured in place or precast which is used for floor and wall treatments it consists of chips of marble quartz granite glass or other suitable material poured with a cementitious binder for chemical binding polymeric for physical binding or a combination of both It was in the 1970s that we got ceramic followed by marble and vitrified tilesConservation architect Vikas Dilawari adds that when talking of the late 19th century which is when CSMT or former VT station and other Victorian buildings came up is when we started using Minton tiles or encaustic tilesmdashfirst developed by Cistercian monks in the 12th century England encaustic tiles faced a crisis when Henry Tudor VII closed the monastries because the Church refused to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon The art form was revived in the 1800s by Henry Mintonmdashwhich are fired tiles were used in Victorian buildings in the UK For instance the Rajabai tower arcade has an undisturbed pattern making it look like a carpet These tiles became very popular and became associated with Victorian buildings What started with public buildings slowly became a craze with elite homes adopting the same styleThere were highly decorative versions of Minton tiles and then there were the simplified versions which were less embellished Two octagonal tiles of different colours less ornate were more prevalent in Mumbai homes These were also Minton tiles But there were many areas which had no tiles for instance floors with Indian pattern stone flooring These would have been carpeted Before Minton wooden flooring was common The disadvantage was that these could not be washed There would be cavities and below the floor would be another false ceiling of wood This is what we see at Esplanande House Dilawari adds In Mumbai When the economic recession followed between the two world wars ie 1919 and 1939 the need to make materials faster economical and due to Gandhijis Swaraj movement pushed the need for alternative tiles ie cement tiles Minton tile patterns came in cement versions for instance something we see in Bharat Tiles Dilawari points to the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum and says that the special exhibition centre on the top floor of the Byculla structure sports cement tiles in Art Deco patternmdashthe ceiling of this floor was repaired in late 1920searly 30s Whereas the gallery has a carpet of Minton tiles When new buildings began to be constructed in the 1930 40s and 50s around Oval Maidan says Dilawari concrete tiles were usedCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates