Crawford Market

       While providing designs for the Byculla college project in the early1870’s Kipling also worked extensively on sculptural plaques for the publicentrance to the Crawford Market which was named after the then municipalcommissioner of Bombay Arthur Travers Crawford. It was originally designed byarchitect Russell Aitken as a series of sheds for a good’s bazaar but a moreextensive scheme was ultimately considered necessary. Finally William Emersonsubmitted the winning proposal in a competition arranged by Crawford which wasfirst advertised in London. Still known familiarly as Crawford Market; theofficial name has now changed to honor Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

An old photograph of Crawford Market

       So…. What does one remember while visiting Crawford Market? BritishIndia, old Bombay? Or what can be one’s perception towards looking at placelike this one? Therefore to understand the realm of such a great public spacein Mumbai, we conducted a study on Crawford Market which could give us a clearunderstanding as to why Crawford Market is a notable success till date. It islocated opposite the Mumbai police head-quarters, just north of the ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus railway station, west of the J.J. fly-over and is at a walk able distance from CST.

       Bazaars, haats are authentic Indianconcepts which become integrated public spaces in the city of Mumbai andCrawford is definitely one of them. We started our study by simply strolling onthe streets of Crawford, understanding the streets, the people, the landscape,the architecture, etc. and the first thing that caught our attention was the128-foot high clock tower which advertised the entire market, adorned thecityscape and made an extremely effective focal point. Clear transformation inthe style of architecture was also observed, right from the 12^thcentury French Gothic style as described by Emerson the mastermind behind Crawford,to the art deco style of architecture.

Transformation

The fabric of the city is finely grained. Thebuilding promotes small blocks in close proximity, each varying in heights. Thestreet has got three major setups starting from the M.J.Phule Market, theCrawford Market and the Mangaldas market making the land use majorlycommercial. We also find mixed use of buildings and comparatively lessbuildings which were entirely residential. Public amenities like a police chowkopposite the Sheikh Memon Street and the Jama Masjid; an excellent example ofIslamic architecture is also found.

Open v/s Built

Building Use

Land Use

Gradually we started understandingcertain important elements which made it a great street one of which was theheights and proportions of the buildings as compared to the street. We noticedthat the (Sheikh Memon) street was in shadow almost the entire day. We understoodthat the buildings, their heights were all planned and constructed keeping inmind the sun path which increased the comfort zone  not only of the pedestrians but also thehawkers sitting, standing, and yelling along the by lanes of the street. Nextthing that was dominating the street was the hawker community hawking loudlythe prices of their products. As a whole they were advertising and invitingpeople to the lane making it noisy and chaotic.

Heights and Proportions

       A Streetis never complete without its people. They are people who make a street what ithas to be. Be it hawkers, be it residents of that area, be it consumers or beit pedestrians. Therefore we started understanding the tiny activities thatpeople were observed doing on the street. The percentage of people standing,sitting, bargaining, arguing, interacting, eating, drinking, etc. A majorpercentage of people visited the street as consumers. Interactions, conversations,bargaining happened amongst people who came to buy. A conversation, adiscussion, generally starts when there are open and public spaces, which arenot restricted for a class or a community of people. When people come together,though strangers they automatically tend to start a conversation or sometimeseven arrive at an inference. While Crawford Market is an integrative publicspace that caters to the needs of diverse class of people and is accessible toall, it did not seem to translate into a place where people could sit anddiscuss issues, be it personal or social and political. This is mainly because,Crawford Market is always busy and it apparently did not have sittable places. 

Street Corner Happenings

Another part of our study broughtus to the conclusion that people tend to sit where there is shade; irrespectiveof the size, kind or the comfort level of the space. All they require is shade.People in Crawford were observed sitting on an empty Mango crate, or on theplinth of a small shop, or even on the plinth of the footpath but all thesespaces were found in shade; of a tree of the roofs of shops, etc. Since it wasa long walk along the street we felt really hungry by noon. But even we urban researcherspreferred hogging on the street rather than cooling ourselves in an airconditioned restaurant. Yes street food works at Crawford. It provides a widevariety of food from spicy amalgamation snacks to cooling and refreshing juicesand friutplates. We observed people eating on the streets, looking at theactivities going around or simply gazing at the landscape of the street. Wealso mapped the density of sound, which was partly dependent on the trafficflow, and partly on the week days. We understood what kind of smell wasdominant in which area and how it affected the pedestrian circulation. Crawfordlacked landscape too. We found out that the trees were not complimenting thestreet and the people.

Trees

Landscape Mapping

Sound Mapping - Monday

Sound Mapping - Sunday

Smell Mapping

Color Mapping

Mapping Vehicular Movement

Mapping Pedestrian Movement

       Another important feature of the market is that there is order in chaos.Though the street hawkers made the lane noisy and chaotic, there was order inplaces like the Mangaldas Market or the Crawford market. The entire pedestriancirculation changes when one enters the Crawford Market or the MangaldasMarket. There are proper pathways that lead you to the shops, even the shopsare arranged on the smell or the king of shops. Everything so disciplinarily sorted out. But one cannot deny with the fact that it is because of the hawkersand the noise that they create that one feels safe and secured walking throughthe by lanes. Generally a by lane becomes dead and dark especially if it is aresidential area but it is a completely different picture at Crawford Market. Becauseof the mixed use of the buildings and again the street hawkers, there is activityfound till late night. These bring in more people on the street making it asafe place to walk on.

Shops and Informalities

Continuous Activity

        Our understanding of Crawford Market isthat it is a great bazaar with diverse people, variety of goods, plurality inactivities and the heart of the city of Mumbai. It has a history and a great storyof transformation and has evolved over a period of time. While we learn fromthis study the proportions that make a street work, the kind of architecturalelements that humanize a city and the blur between the formal and the informalit also forms a case for small urban interventions to deal with the increasing auto mobile traffic which was not quite anticipated several years ago. A conservativesurgery to keep the essence of this space intact with small urban insertions tokeep it from overcrowding by auto mobiles is the challenge that Crawford Market in particular and Mumbai in general presents today!