In search of British era cannon's in streets of old Bombay - Cannon trails

I had read about an article published in afternoon tabloid few years back on British era cannons lying on the streets of Bombay which were used differently like bollards or territorial markers differentiating the "White Bombay" from the native "Black Bombay". The article literally rang bell in my ears for it was something different or "hatke" as compared to regular heritage monuments, buildings & religious hubs in Bombay that I usually cover in my heritage exploratory walks. One one of the Sundays I set out to rediscover these hidden heritage which probably has been lying around for over 150 years. 

It is said that in city of Mumbai alone there could be over 250 cannons lying in nook and corners of the city, hidden in plain sight and ignored by passerby. On basis of information from the article from years back, I started my journey from outside the Masjid Bunder station on the west side. The railway station on central and harbour lines of Mumbai railway itself is a heritage structure, built in 1877. My first stop was behind Bhandari street police chowky in a narrow bylane, lies a small shrine built with blue tiles. No one would believe unless seen with own eyes that the deity is an "inverted cannon half buried in the ground". A flower garland adorned the cannon. It has been worshipped since long and this way it is protected. 

Further away on the same street amidst the trash thrown from the buildings surrounding the street lies two more cannon which have not been so lucky enough to have been worshipped or protected. They lie on the street and at some of time were placed here as bollards and may have been used to tie the horses. It is said that Fort area of Bombay city was known as" White Bombay" where the Britishers preferred to live and area behind these cannons were called "Black Bombay" where settlers from across the world came and settled. So basically the Carnac road or today's Lokmanya Tilak road acted as Esplanade cross road. The demography and landscape changed from Victorian architectural buildings of Fort area to small buildings and chawls occupied by the trading community after the cannon markers. Beyond the cannons Indians were allowed to construct their houses.

Next stop on the cannon trail is at the entrance of Nagdevi street, One of the cannon lies more than half buried and painted in white, camouflaged perfectly with the walls of the building. This one lies under the leather accessories shop. 

Another one lies just opposite of it. Here pan wala has his shop above the cannon. It gets hidden with all goods kept under the shop. One guy at the panwala points me to another one just few steps away.

This cannon is almost buried completely and is right outside the popular Sadanand restaurant at the entrance of Sarang street. The eatery entrance has almost gobbled up the cannon. Being a Sunday the streets are less crowded and most of the business establishment are closed which helped me in easily identifying these hidden heritage.

Moving further to Lokmanya Tilak Marg Police station compound, There lies a much better preserved cannon on wheels and painted in silver colour. 

Just around the corner of the building and the street, there is a cobbler shop which is proud owner of yet another one of the cannons. The cannon acts as a pillow support for someone sleeping in the cobbler shop.

There is one more cannon which is hidden in a shanty. The shanty on the footpath lies between the police station and the small cause court. One of the person sitting in the cobbler shop was happy to show me the hidden cannon by lifting the side of shanty plastic cover. The person informed that they say that it was used to tie the ships / boats when sea used to touch here. That was more than 150 years ago !! 

The last stop on the trail ends opposite Metro Cinema junction. This cannon which seems bigger in size than the other cannons lies completely buried on the footpath outside a wine shop. It also gets covered with open doors of a wine shop. I had to move the door to get a glimpse of the cannon.

The story goes that these cannons which are muzzle loading cannons were earlier used by British till 1860, They were replaced by more sophisticated ones but discarding such military hardware required huge efforts, Leaving these military hardware in open would have posed a risk with their misuse. Hence innovative use of the same was devised, they were buried four feet in the ground and used as territorial markers or bollards post.

In other part of Mumbai where cannons are located, One of them is near Kopri creek of Thane lies a Hanuman temple which is protected by such cannons which are probably older than these cannons of South Mumbai. I have covered it in another post. (Hanuman temple with cannons).

In Fort area, At the end of Kalaghoda lane and just opposite the Lion gate of naval dockyard, a cannon has been placed on the road junction. Similarly there is a cannon placed just outside Sasoon docks gate in Colaba. There are two huge cannons lying outside INS Angre gate which is close to customs house in Fort.

In Thakurdwar area, there is cross lane called "Navi Wadi" earlier it was called "Thakur Wadi", to mark the end of Thakurwadi the residents buried inverted cannons, There were four cannons half buried which are over 200 years old. I could only locate two of them. This wadi is off Dadiseth Agiary lane.

Its interesting to find these heritage on roadside which we might have passed many times but just totally ignored their presence. With many heritage walks being conducted in the city, there is now better sense of preservation and awareness among people for our heritage and this has resulted into many of our heritage getting highlighted. Hopefully we will now look at them with pride and help in conserving them in a better way.