Westside choice

Colorful columns bespeak heritage and modernity at Westside, Army and Navy Building at Kala Ghoda in Bombay. The swanky lifestyle store of the Tatas opened its doors to customers in April 2003 in the city’s heritage precinct, in the same premises where a century ago the Army and Navy Stores had lured many a colonial customer, clad in the finery of the British Raj, strolling its interiors looking for the finest goods from the West.

Westside at Kala Ghoda: trendy interior and elegant street front

With Westside’s blue and green signage blending into the arcades in keeping with heritage norms, the store stands in august company, with the splendid edifice of Elphinstone College, cleaned of a century of grime and filth by the spirit of private enterprise, and the natty little David Sassoon Library on one side, and the unfortunately run-down old Watsons Hotel on the other, the Jehangir Art Gallery and the Prince of Wales Museum its across-the-street neighbors.

With the store’s sibling at Hughes Road (see "Tata trends,” Business, Parsiana, July-August 1999) situated beyond south Bombay, Westside at Kala Ghoda (though the magnificent black steed has long moved stable!) seeks to entice the officegoers of Fort and Nariman Point and residents of Churchgate/Colaba with invitingly displayed sartorial trends in men’s, women’s and children’s wear and a bright household section. Cafe West offers shoppers culinary delights from the Tata’s grand old Taj Mahal Hotel, currently celebrating its centenary.