06 VT
Day 235 - 3:15pm
This is Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus, and better known by its abbreviation CST or Bombay VT), an historic railway station which serves as the headquarters of the Indian Central Railways. The station building was designed in the Victorian Gothic style by some dude called Frederick William Stevens in the 1880's. The building took ten years to complete and was named 'Victoria Terminus' in honour of the then reining Queen Victoria. It's a pretty impressive lump of rock (from the outside at least) and is the second most photographed building in India after the Taj Mahal (and you don't even have to pay to see it!). The guys from UNESCO like it too as they designated it a World Heritage Site in July 2004, classing it as an 'outstanding example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture' and 'an outstanding example of the meeting of two cultures, as British architects worked with Indian craftsmen to include Indian architectural tradition and idioms thus forging a new style unique to Bombay.' Umm, I guess the UNESCO guys didn't venture into the dark and musty interior. Trust me; in there it's 100% India, 0% England. Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. April 4th 2008
