Gateway of India

Before there was a Bombay, there were seven islands: Colaba, the little Old Woman's Island, Bombay itself, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli and Mahim. They were home to the Kolis, fishermen who still work this coast today. This quay, Apollo Bunder, was a fishing ground for centuries.

1A royal dowry

In 1534 the Sultan of Gujarat ceded the islands to Portugal under the Treaty of Bassein. In 1661 they changed hands in the most unexpected way: they were part of the dowry of the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II of England. In 1668 the Crown leased them to the East India Company for ten pounds a year. Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, land reclamation works such as the Hornby Vellard causeway gradually stitched the islands together into one.

2Arrival and farewell

On 2 December 1911, King George V and Queen Mary landed here, the first reigning British monarchs to visit India. All they could see of the monument was a cardboard model. The foundation stone was laid in 1913; the Scottish architect George Wittet designed it with motifs from sixteenth-century Gujarati architecture, and it was opened on 4 December 1924. Twenty-four years later, on 28 February 1948, the 1st Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry marched through this arch to embark: they were the last British troops to leave independent India.

The arch built to welcome the empire ended up waving it goodbye.

3What to look for

• The inscription recording the landing of 1911.
• The stone lattice screens of Gujarati inspiration on the sides.
• The launches at the quay, carrying on centuries of harbour traffic.