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Watson’s Hotel, currently known as the Esplanade Mansions, is India’s oldest surviving cast iron building, located in the Kala Ghoda district of Mumbai (Bombay). It was named after its original owner, John Watson. The building was fabricated in England and constructed onsite between 1867 and 1869. It was designed by civil engineer Rowland Mason Ordish (1824–1886), who was also associated with the St Pancras Station in London. Its external cast-iron frame closely resembles other high-profile 19th century buildings such as London’s Crystal Palace. The main façade of the hotel is distinguished by building-wide open balconies on each floor that connected the guest rooms. The rooms in Watson’s Hotel were built around the atrium in a courtyard arrangement.
John Watson opened the hotel as an exclusive whites-only hotel, and it was the swankiest hotel in the city in those days. The five storied structure housed 130 guest rooms, as well as a lobby, restaurant and a bar at the ground level. The hotel also had a 30 metre by 9 metre atrium which had a glass skylight. The atrium was originally used as aballroom. The common joke at that time was: “If only Watson had imported the English weather as well”. At its peak, Watson’s hotel employed English waitresses in its restaurant and ballroom.
Among the hotel’s notable guests was Mark Twain who wrote about the city’s crows he saw outside his balcony inFollowing the Equator. It was also the first place in India to screen the Lumière Brothers‘ Cinematographe invention in 1896. However this was witnessed only by Europeans.
According to rumours, Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata was denied access to the hotel. In retaliation he opened theTaj Mahal Palace, a hotel that stands near what is now the Gateway of India in 1903.
quiz2gm2 will have quiz worthy info i come across hpoe it will be helpful...
Way back in the early ’60’s, a visionary named Phil Knight started a small shoe company, which was originally called “Blue Ribbon Sports”. Now we know it simply as ?