Commercial Mumbai of 1880s

The Northern part of the old ‘Fort’ this is the area that was known to all of Bombay’s (Mumbai) colonial rulers as ‘Black Town’ because of the strength in numbers of local inhabitants. Merchants, traders, fishermen, cobblers, ironsmiths dominated the scene with their shops. During the first half of the 19th century most of the banking work was done by Hindu Shroffs situated in the Bhora Bazzar Street (Perin Nariman Street).The birthplace of the famed Bombay Bazaar, back then this was the crowded, dense section of the old town, a feature that can be seen even today.