Next I walked to St Thomas Cathedral, which is supposed to be the oldest building in Bombay. It looked old, but in better condition than a lot of other buildings I have seen here, so I expect that a good deal goes into its upkeep. I think it is about 300 years old. (Bombay isn’t a terribly old city; it was a bunch of fishing villages until the Portuguese and then the British started building.) There were several plaques up on the walls, commemorating old colonialists, some who dies of sickness, some who died in battle. That was strange, sort of history come to life-ish/reaching out from the grave-ish.
Near the cathedral is the city hall, which acts as a central library. The guidebook gushed about the impressive building and ancient and illustrious air of the library within. The guidebook, you’ll remember, hasn’t been doing very well. This didn’t help. So, the guidebook was now 1 for 4. (1 for the fountain)
The library did not feel ancient, or illustrious, or impressive. The building is big, and it is old. The book is right when it says that very little has changed since the eighteenth century, when it was built. Very little has changed, and very little has been cleaned. Maybe there are beautiful rooms in other parts of the building, but I didn’t find them, because I couldn’t figure out how to get off the dusty ground floor. I felt like I was walking around the gymnasium of a poorly funded junior high school that was built in the 20s. So I used the bathroom and took a picture of the card catalogues and left.
Now, after a series of disappointments, let us move quickly on to the next attraction, Victoria Terminus.