Rajabai Clock Tower

This 85-metre tower was the tallest structure in Bombay for more than eighty years. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott, the British architect of St Pancras in London, who never travelled to India: he sent the plans from England. Big Ben was its model. The foundation stone was laid on 1 March 1869 and the work was finished in November 1878, in buff-coloured Kurla stone.

1The cotton king

Much of the cost was paid by Premchand Roychand, a Jain broker known as the cotton king. During the cotton boom of the 1860s he promoted enormous ventures, among them a company to fill in Back Bay, the sea you will see at the end of this tour. In 1865 the bubble burst and Roychand lost heavily, but he kept his promise of a donation. He set just one condition: that the tower bear the name of his mother, Rajabai.

2The bells of a blind mother

Here the legend begins. It is said that Rajabai was blind and that, as a devout Jain, she had to eat her evening meal before sunset. The evening bell would have let her know the time without depending on anyone. It is a lovely and much-repeated story, but no contemporary record confirms it. What is known is that the clock played sixteen tunes, among them 'Home! Sweet Home!', changing them four times a day. The tower was closed to the public decades ago after several suicides, and was restored in 2015.

A tower paid for by a cotton speculator and named after his mother.

3What to look for

• The clock face high on the tower.
• The statues in the niches of the lower stage.
• The belfry: wait for the quarter hour and you may hear its chimes.