Crawford Market in Mumbai, the premiere wholesale market

dwindling-mahatma-jyotibha-phule-market
This architecture needs attention
Mumbai Crawford Market
This architecture needs attention

Lying in the north of Victoria Terminus station is the Crawford Market, an 18th century market being named after Sir Arthur Crawford, a premiere place to buy many wholesale goods. The name of this market has been changed to Mahatma Jyotibha Phule market but locales here love to call it as Crawford Market only. With a mix of Flemish and Norman style of architecture it was named after first municipal commissioner of Mumbai – Sir Arthur Crawford.

A knife sharpening man at Mumbai Crawford Market
A knife sharpening man with his small “khoka”

For me, it looked nothing more like an old subzi mandi or a wholesale market of any kind. When I entered here, I found many wholesale shops clustered and mushroomed throughout the area where people were selling everything ranging from fruits and vegetables to soaps, chocolates, spices, etc. To me it looked like as if there was a big circus of buyers and sellers where people were arguing about the quality of products and were busy cracking down the prices.

Colourful Crawford Vegetable Market
Colourful to click photographs

 

The fresh veggies and fruits coming to the market on a daily basis are a regular feature
attractive enough to make the customers come back again and again.

Fruit vendors at Crawford Market
A street full of wholesale fruit vendors

When I moved forward I saw that there was a big market of pets too. From singing birds to fancy dogs, rare macaques to furry rabbits, one can purchase different pets here. I approached a shopkeeper and asked for the price of a kitten. I looked surprisingly at him when he quoted that it was something around Rs. 15,000. Isn’t that expensive? Well, then I quickly realised that it is situated in South Bombay area. Unfortunately, those shopkeepers didn’t let me click the pictures of the animals. They probably thought of me as a competitor who came there to sabotage their business.

Age old Crawford Market
Age old market

Unfortunately time has not been kind enough for this place and hence it’s in a great need of restoration. But other than that, it was quite delightful to roam in this area rioted with colours. I must say, I clicked some pretty good snaps here.

 

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