Flying buttresses supporting the church’s back & stained glass paintings were restored.

There's a long standing joke about one of Mumbai's earliest neighbourhoods, Churchgate. When commuters emerge from its railway terminus or visitors disembark at the elaborate square, there is no church to be found nor a gate. However, if one can wade through the highrises, commercial buildings, traffic and smog that have done history in, you do arrive at a church called St Thomas Cathedral that was built within the fortified settlement of Fort in 1718. There also existed a gate situated where the Flora Fountain now stands and formed the southern boundary of Mumbai, but was later removed. Together they gave Churchgate, the station and the precinct, its name.

Now thanks to the efforts of the church congregation and heritage keepers of the city, the lost church and its three-centuries old history will be harder to miss. The junction where the serene Horniman Circle meets the busy Veer Nariman Road, will henceforth be called 'St. Thomas Cathedral Chowk' while a commemorative plaque standing seven feet tall and made of black basalt stone will bear the name engraved in gold and remind passersby of what Churchgate stands for. "Since it is a religious building and hidden from direct view, not too many people visit the Cathedral, although it is one of those rare buildings in the city to have celebrated 300 years. The naming of the chowk after the Cathedral gives the building an urban context, enhances its importance as a heritage site and gives people a reason to visit," explained conservation architect Sheetal Gandhi who worked on the monument piecemeal between 2016 and 2018 following previous efforts by various architects to restore the iconic Anglican Grade 1 church a decade ago, when it was feted by UNESCO and Urban Heritage.

It was no easy task for the church to raise Rs 2 crore for the last phase of reinstating the structure to its former glory but the rewards are there for all to cherish. Its interiors stand restored, stones consolidated, furniture repaired, lighting enhanced, walls whitewashed and paint stripped off doors and windows while the fountain in disrepair for over 25 years now jets out columns of water. An outer illumination highlights the cathedral's famously slender arches from wall to ground also called flying buttresses and throws light on the renovated stained glass panels.

The naming of the chowk and installation of the plaque, however took another two years - January 2018 to November 2019 - from designing to acquiring relevant 'No Objection Certificates' from the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and BMC for the proposed location and use of black basalt stone, a fine-grained volcanic rock for the tablet.

"The authorities suggested granite but for the sake of aesthetics and historicity, we didn't want to use modern material. It didn't fit in. We didn't want to compromise on the look and feel of a heritage precinct just to speed it up for the tercentenary celebrations last year," explained Gandhi. "Black basalt is seen in many of the surrounding heritage buildings, and resilient to the onslaught of weather, traffic and pollution."

This grandpa of a church is the oldest British building in the city that has seen it all. It served as Point Zero, where the pin fell on 'Bombay', and from where distances were calculated in milestones in the past.The Cathedral Tower was once a lighthouse for sailors at sea and inside the Cathedral are memorials to young soldiers who died in the First World War. And every year as the city welcomes the birth of Jesus Christ at midnight hour, it serves as the main Anglican house of worship where the bishop conducts Christmas service.

