In Byculla, one of Mumbai's older neighbourhoods, a grand turquoise building with the bearing of a British colonial mansion holds a collection that tells the story of how the city came to be. This is the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the oldest museum in Mumbai, founded in 1857 under its original name: the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Its origins trace back to the buzz around London's Great Exhibition of 1851, which inspired plans for a similar institution in Bombay. That makes the building itself a piece of history — reportedly the first colonial structure built specifically to house a museum. In 1975 it took its current name, honouring Dr. Bhau Daji Lad, a 19th-century surgeon, scholar, philanthropist and social reformer who became Mumbai's first Indian Sheriff and was instrumental in getting the museum built.
What's inside is a treat for anyone curious about Mumbai's unlikely geography. The city as we know it was once seven separate islands, and the museum's old maps show that original archipelago before land reclamation fused them into one landmass. There's a detailed model of Bombay Castle, one of the city's first structures and the historic core around which everything else grew, plus models of the boats and ships that once carried trade and guarded the coast.
The collection spans statues, paintings, weapons, maps and colonial-era artefacts. One standout: a huge stone elephant that once stood on Elephanta Island in the harbour — the island is literally named after it.
For travellers, the museum sits inside Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan (the zoo gardens in Byculla), so it pairs easily with a morning among the greenery, and it's a smart stop if you've already done the Gateway of India and want a deeper read on the city. If you enjoy seeing Mumbai as it was before the skyscrapers — an island trading post with forts, boats and seven coastlines — this is the single best room to do it in. The building's restored exterior and ornate interiors alone justify the detour to a part of town most tourist itineraries skip.
Brief based on Atlas Obscura.
