Mumbai holds the world's second-largest Art Deco collection, a 19th-century Gothic university built on cotton money, and a contemporary gallery circuit packed into a few Kala Ghoda blocks. Three days of museums, theatres, mills and mosques.
George Wittet's 1922 Indo-Saracenic museum with a Malad-stone dome. Three wings hold Gandhara Buddhist sculpture, Indus Valley seals and Mughal miniatures. Open 10:15–18:00, but the garden gates open at 09:00 for the Deco-lit facade.
Four halls rented weekly since 1952 — the gallery that showed Husain, Souza and the Progressive Artists' Group. Shows rotate every Tuesday. Walk out to Chatterjee & Lal and Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in adjacent Colaba lanes.
Mumbai's oldest museum (1872), a Renaissance Revival hall with gilded columns and Minton floor tiles, restored in 2008. Clay models of 19th-century Bombay trades, dioramas and a strong contemporary programme. Closed Wednesdays.
The UNESCO-listed Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble (2018). Along the Oval's west edge stand 1930s buildings with ziggurat parapets, eyebrow balconies and nautical railings, facing High Court Gothic across the grass.
The 1431 Indo-Islamic marble dargah of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, reached by a 500m causeway submerged at high tide. Check tide tables before walking. The Dhobi Ghat's 700 open-air washing pens sit 1km east off the Mahalaxmi bridge.
A 1923 Parsi Irani café in an Art Deco block, run by the Kohinoor family for a century. Berry pulao with Iranian barberries and mutton, plus dhansak and caramel custard. Lunch only, roughly 12:00–16:00, closed Sundays.
F.W. Stevens' 1888 UNESCO station fuses Venetian Gothic with Mughal domes — stone monkeys, peacocks and a Progress statue on the dome. The first-floor heritage gallery and the star chamber booking hall are open to visitors.
Five venues on reclaimed land: the 1,010-seat Jamshed Bhabha Theatre for opera and ballet, the Tata Theatre for Hindustani classical, and Experimental Theatre for Marathi and English drama. Symphony Orchestra of India seasons run February and September.
An 1840s East Indian Christian hamlet of about 25 surviving Portuguese-style wooden bungalows with external staircases and ochre verandahs, hemmed in by towers. Designer James Ferreira's house and small studios open by arrangement.
A 1833 neoclassical Town Hall with 30 Doric columns and a monumental staircase. Inside are 100,000 volumes, one of two original Divine Comedy manuscripts, and marble busts of colonial-era Bombay figures in the Durbar Hall.
The Phoenix and Kamala Mills compounds turned old cotton-mill sheds into studios and venues. G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture runs black-box theatre, talks and sound art in a converted warehouse on Laxmi Mills Estate.
A 1127 stepped freshwater tank built by Lakshman Prabhu of the Silhara court, fed by an underground spring and ringed by dharamshalas, samadhis and small shrines. The annual Banganga Festival stages classical music on the steps in January.