watson hotel bombay UNDER CONSTRUCTION
JOHN WATSON OF WATSON HOTEL BOMBAY VS Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata Group, opened the TajMahal Palace & Tower, the first Taj property, on December 16, 1903. He was inspired to open the grand luxury hotel after an incident involving racial discrimination at the Watson's Hotel in Mumbai, where he was refused entry as the hotel did not permit Indians.Hotels which accepted only European guests were common across British India . However, this story has been challenged by some commentators that suggest that Tata was unlikely to have been concerned with 'revenge' against his British adversaries.
On Mahatma Gandhi (formerly Esplanade) Road: the Army and Navy Building, formerly a department store but now offices for Tata Consulting;
{on the right, the edge of the former Watson's Hotel, crushed by the Taj OFFICE}
VINTAGE PHOTO OF ABOVE
A Brief History of Watson's Hotel, India's Oldest Cast-Iron Building
About the Event Some thought it resembled a birdcage, some a skeleton, but Watson’s Esplanade Hotel was undoubtedly Bombay’s first grand hotel. This Sunday, Bombay Vintage in collaboration with Bombaywalla brings to you a guided walk around Bombay’s first grand hotel. Expressly designed as a first class hotel with upwards of 120 rooms and a steam lift, Watson’s was conceived in the 1860s along with the grand structures it stands alongside- the University, the High Court, and the Secretariat.
Some thought it resembled a birdcage, some a skeleton, but Watson’s Esplanade Hotel was undoubtedly Bombay’s first grand hotel. This Sunday, Bombay Vintage in collaboration with Bombaywalla brings to you a guided walk around Bombay’s first grand hotel. Expressly designed as a first class hotel with upwards of 120 rooms and a steam lift, Watson’s was conceived in the 1860s along with the grand structures it stands alongside- the University, the High Court, and the Secretariat.
