CSMVS
Opened 1922 in an Indo-Saracenic hall built to mark a royal visit, holding Indus seals, Gandharan sculpture and Mughal painting.
Rent the audio guide; the miniature painting gallery is the highlight.
2.5 hrs
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Mumbai
A Portuguese dowry handed to the English crown in 1661, filled in causeway by causeway, then rebuilt in Gothic and Deco by the merchants the mills made rich.
Arabian Sea
1661
Dowry
Bombay passes to the English crown.
1784
Hornby Vellard
The islands begin to be joined.
1860s
Cotton boom
Mills and Gothic public buildings.
1930s
Deco coast
Marine Drive built on reclaimed land.
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
The city's oldest museum, 1872, restored to its painted Victorian interior and devoted to Bombay's crafts and its own growth. It reopened in January 2025 after a four-year closure.
Closed Wednesdays. Combine with Jijamata Udyan's gardens next door.
90 min
National Museum of Indian Cinema
Housed in the 19th-century Gulshan Mahal bungalow, this museum traces Indian film history from Raja Harishchandra (1913), India's first full-length feature film.
Closed Mondays; book online.
90 min
Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum
Set up in 1954 by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, it holds a 1618 firman of Emperor Jehangir and remains the world's only museum dedicated to Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrian heritage.
Reopened in 2025 after restoration; check opening days before you go.
60 min
National Gallery of Modern Art
Indian modern art — the Progressive Artists' Group, Amrita Sher-Gil and others — in the round Sir Cowasji Jehangir Hall.
Closed Mondays; usually quiet.
60 min
Mani Bhavan
Mahatma Gandhi's Bombay base from 1917 to 1934, where he launched the 1919 Rowlatt Satyagraha and much of the Non-Cooperation campaign; it is now a memorial museum.
Don't miss the diorama room on the top floor.
60 min