Essay - The story of Watson's Hotel, Bombay
Like a huge birdcage exhaled from the earth: Watson’s Esplanade Hotel, Bombay (1867-71) and its place in structural history.
By Jonathan Clarke
Published in Construction History, Volume 18 - 2002
“A traveller familiar with Bombay passed through it in 1867, and, on a morning walk, observed that opposite Forbes Street something like a huge birdcage had risen like an exhalation from the earth. This was the skeleton of the Esplanade Hotel.”
Read more of this interesting story :
http://bit.ly/1E0Kxjj
Jamsedji Tata decided to build the hotel after he was refused entry to one of the city's grand hotels of the time, Watson's Hotel, as it was restricted to "whites only".
Mark Twain is said to have stayed at Watson's!