WhereCity.com - Articles - Horniman Circle Gardens

Located in the Fort district of Mumbai, Horniman Circle Gardens is surrounded by office complexes that house some of the country’s premier banks. According to initial plans of the city’s planners, the garden was never meant to be there. It was merely a circle of stately buildings including Town Hall housing the Asiatic Library and the Central Library. Bank of Bombay (State Bank of India) was the first occupant of the first building erected in the Circle. Other buildings in the circle were completed by 1873.

The empty space was developed into the present day garden, due to the efforts of police commissioner Charles Forjett, Lord Elphinstone and Sir Bartle Frère. Trees were planted, walkways were laid out and the empty place was converted into a beautiful garden.

The garden was named after the then Governor, Lord Elphinstone and called Elphinstone Circle. Post independence, the garden saw its name change to Horniman Circle after Benjamin Horniman, an English journalist who was a leading advocate of Indian self-determination at the Deccan Chronicle. Read more...