Fort & Cotton Market, Bombay.--Photographer: Unknown Medium: Photographic print Date: 1860

This photograph showing the fort and cotton market at Bombay, what is now modern-day Mumbai, was taken in the 1860s to form part of an album entitled 'Photographs of India and Overland Route'. The fort was constructed between 1715 and 1722 under Charles Boone’s governorship to protect the island city from seabourne assailants. Early in the nineteenth century the area expanded with the construction of several public buildings including the Town Hall (1833), the Mint (1824-29), Customs House and St. Andrew’s Church (1819). With the acceleration of trade and commerce later in the century Bombay was transformed into a colonial town of high architectural accomplishment. This was largely due to Governor Sir Bartle Frere, who in 1862 initiated improvements such as road widening and the restructuring of squares.