Reinventing Crawford: Designed by the architect of Victoria Memorial, frequented by Kipling as a boy

A blueprint of BMC’s redevelopment plans for Crawford Market. (Photo: Special Arrangement)

With time taking a toll on Crawford Market, besides unruly hawkers, lack of space and parking lots, unorganised licensees and a dilapidating structure, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) restored the Grade-I heritage market around 2016 and is currently redeveloping the overall precinct under phase two of the plan.

A boy, a market and the Jungle Book

Perhaps the most famous visitor to frequent the British-era market was Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling, while he was still knee-high to a grasshopper.

“My first impression is of daybreak, light and colour and golden and purple fruits at the level of my shoulder. This would be the memory of early morning walks to the Bombay fruit market with my ayah and later with my sister in her perambulator, and of our returns with our purchases piled high on the bows of it,” wrote the novelist, who was born in Mumbai in 1865, in his autobiography, Something of Myself, about his morning walks to Crawford Market from his father’s official bungalow that was located smack-dab in middle of Sir JJ School of Art.

Photos showing the facade and renovated clock tower at Crawford Market. The clock tower still bears the initials of Arthur Travers Crawford, Mumbai’s first municipal commissioner. (Express Photos by Prashant Nadkar, Vasant Prabhu)

Not only did his father John Lockwood Kipling serve as the first dean of the celebrated art school for a few years, he also carved the stone with marble sculptures above the entrance of Crawford Market. In fact, the April 1869 edition of Bombay Builder, a prominent journal, showered praises on Kipling for his design since the marble sculpture was among the largest pieces of its kind attempted in India back then.

An amalgam of Norman and Gothic architectural styles, Crawford Market of 1868 comprised a main hall, three large gateways as well as a 128-foot-high clock tower.

City chronicler Bharat Gothoskar, who founded Khaki Tours to explore Mumbai’s heritage, said, “Emerson’s designs took into consideration Mumbai’s weather. Due to the use of stone and open spaces for ventilation, the market is much cooler inside. The clock tower still bears Crawford’s initials — ATC — that were carved on it.”

In 1874, two fountains featuring river goddesses and animals also emerged within the market’s triangular compound.

Gothoskar added, “Municipal Commissioner Crawford’s ambitious plans for the market resulted in extensive spending, which was hard to justify after the cotton crash of 1864 (Mumbai’s first major share market scandal after the end of American Civil War in 1865). Later, allegations of corruption engulfed Crawford, for he had interests in the firm that supplied bricks to many colonial buildings, including the market.”

Even as the corruption scandal shrouded Crawford’s next stint as the Revenue Commissioner of the Mumbai division, his ambitious market project continued to flourish.

What developed as a market for sale of perishable goods was soon flanked by traders of other items. Since the 1960s, several establishments have mushroomed along the original structure. Today, the market is home to 1,090 licensed business traders.

Photos showing the facade and the renovated 128-foot-high clock tower. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar, Vasant Prabhu)

Dirt cheap bargains and the age of e-commerce

Zubair Khatri is among the oldest licensees at Crawford Market. He says the market continues to be a favourite among shoppers even in “the day and age of Amazons and Flipkarts” because of the dirt-cheap rates.

“Besides being a wholesale market, people find products selling for below MRP (maximum retail price) at Crawford Market. Also, one can buy everything under one roof here,” he added.

Since the rental was revised in September 2022, 1,090 licensed business traders have been paying the civic body monthly rent of Rs 18.75 per square feet. Going forward, civic officials said, the rate will increase by 5 per cent per annum.

Today, the nooks and crannies of the market are replete with unlicensed hawkers congesting the planned market’s corridors and customers from across the city looking for cheap bargains adding to the chaos. Lack of parking space is another major impediment for the thousands who land up here daily.

Despite the litany of challenges, the BMC launched its ambitious plans to redevelop the market in 2014. It restored the main heritage building under phase one within two years at a cost of Rs 44 crore but work on phase two is still underway.

A carved plaque at the Crawford Market building. (Express Archive)

Prakash Rasal, Assistant Commissioner of BMC’s Markets Department, told The Indian Express, “Phase I involved the renovation and upgradation of the main building, which comprises the clock tower built in the late 1860s. Of 1,090 traders, 458 licensees operate out of the main building. Work on phase II (at a cost of Rs 308 crore) is almost 30 per cent complete.”

Leading conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah, who is the project consultant to ensure heritage remains an integral aspect of the project, said, “The upcoming buildings are not pretending to be gothic. However, to maintain the heritage of the precinct, we have ensured that the new buildings are lower than the main clock tower building. We have incorporated sloping roofs as well as retained the original colour palette of the main building.”

Lambah added, “Furthermore, in this dense space, we have earmarked one acre space wherein we will be developing a central plaza with gardens, benches, skylights and more.”

Assistant Commissioner Rasal said phase II involves restoring the old beef market building, demolishing weak and patra shed structures located in the periphery of the heritage building and developing three separate buildings to house pet shops, a fish market and a mutton market.

The newly restored clock tower of Crawford Market. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

Priti Bapaye, senior architect in BMC’s Civic Market Department, said, “In phase II, we have categorised buildings in four separate blocks. While Block 2, which houses a beef market, will be restored as it is, other buildings in the vicinity of the market — shed-like structures that were haphazardly built — have been demolished to make way for the construction of Blocks 1, 3 and 4.”

Besides upgrading firefighting systems, the civic body also plans to build a multi-level parking facility to address the lacunae of parking spaces. BMC has earmarked two levels of basement parking under Block 5, where fresh market produce will also be loaded and unloaded. To aid the redevelopment work, vendors have been relocated.

Senior BMC officials said, “Besides the market’s shops, we will also shift the nearby wholesale fish market from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Market (CSMM) to Block 3.”

A shift, new buildings and vendor woes

Though phase 2 of the project was slated to be completed by December 2023, for the market’s traders who were ensconced within the market’s alleys for decades, the missed deadline is the least of their woes.

While the idea of redevelopment is a proverbial step up for most Mumbaikars, the project draws mixed reactions from traders at Crawford’s fruit market and fishmongers at the nearby CSMM.

Once operating out of a patra-shed structure, some fruit vendors have now been rehabilitated in a transit shed at the seat of the old building’s entrance, while others have been relocated beneath the bridge with the promise of being reinstated in a newer and safer pucca establishment.

Manoj Gupta, a fruit vendor at the market for the past 22 years, alleged, “We were earlier promised a space of 72 square feet in the new building. Once we vacated our old spot to make way for construction, BMC told us that we will be given 36 square feet of space. Our association has objected to these plans.”

BMC officials clarified that vendors will be allocated space depending on the specifics mentioned on their licences. A senior official said, “Typically, most shops within the market round up to 36 square feet.”

Author Rudyard Kipling would walk to Crawford Market as a boy from his father’s official residence at Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai. (Express Photo by Dilip Kagda)

Another fruit vendor said, “We have also raised the issue of the building’s location. We will be housed in a building located between the pet market and the meat market. Most of our clientele is vegetarian. One of our biggest worries is that nobody will come to shop here because of the stench from these markets.”

Even fishmongers who will be relocated to Block 3 have objected to the civic body’s relocation plans. A seller whose family sold fish from CSMM for 22 years said, “We are worried that the BMC will give us very small spots for vending.”

Pointing to her fish baskets, she added, “Look at this area. Every fishmonger requires a lot of space because of the display, stock, cleaning table, etc. The BMC should allocate us proper benches and tables as per our requirement.”

Her worry is not without cause. In 2021, to aid redevelopment work at the CSMM, deemed to be in a “precarious” state, the BMC had relocated fishmongers to Airoli Octroi Naka, 40 km away from their current location, until the new building at Crawford was ready.

“We moved to Airoli for a month, but our business was severely impacted. The area was very slippery and people would fall all the time,” the fishmonger added.

Still, several traders have welcomed the redevelopment plan with open arms. Among them is Mulchand Dedhia, a third-generation vendor who runs a grocery and gourmet food store.

“I believe restoration work is the need of the hour,” he said, adding that business at Crawford Market is seeing an uptick, despite the rise of online commercial giants and that BMC’s plan is an essential to keep business booming.

The market is indeed teeming with locals and tourists. On a shopping spree for her college’s upcoming fest is 19-year-old Madhura Sarfare.

Sarfare said, “Crawford Market occupies a very special place in my heart. My family has shopped for all commodities and even birthday parties at this market. I keep bringing my friends here as well.”