The Rajabai Clock Tower is one of Mumbai’s most beloved landmarks – a soaring Victorian Gothic spire rising above the Oval Maidan, its silhouette etched into the city’s collective memory. Completed in November 1878 after nearly nine years of construction, the tower was formally inaugurated on 27 February 1880 by Governor Sir Richard Temple. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, who modelled it on London’s Big Ben, the tower was funded by philanthropist Premchand Roychand, founder of the Bombay Stock Exchange, who named it after his mother, Rajabai. At 280 feet (85 metres) and costing ₹547,703, it was the tallest and most expensive structure of its kind in Bombay.
Today, the Rajabai Tower is part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai. But one of its most remarkable features—the musical carillon—has long fallen silent.
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A Victorian Engineering Marvel
When the tower was completed, it housed one of the most sophisticated clock‑and‑chime systems in Asia. The sixteen bells were cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, one of the world’s most respected bell foundries. The chiming mechanism and clock were manufactured by Lund & Blockley, the prestigious London clockmakers who maintained a Bombay branch on Rampart Row.
The bells were arranged in two tiers, suspended on massive iron wheels. The hour bell alone weighed three tons. A compact wooden pin barrel—an ingenious Victorian mechanism studded with brass pins – triggered hammers to strike the bells in perfect sequence. This allowed the tower to play sixteen full melodies, automatically rotating through them at set intervals.
Lund and Blockley also made smaller carillons for the clock towers at the Kolhapur Palace and Custom House, Mandvi (Gujarat).
The Original 16 Tunes Once Played by the Rajabai Tower
These were the melodies performed during the tower’s public inauguration in the early 1880s:
- A Sinfonia by Handel
- Those Evening Bells
- When the Rosy Dawn
- Luther’s Hymn
- Hanover (hymn tune)
- God Save the Queen
- The Harp That Once in Tara’s Hall
- St. Bride’s (hymn tune)
- The Blue Bells of Scotland
- My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground
- The March of the Men of Harlech
- The Last Rose of Summer
- Rule Britannia
- Home, Sweet Home
- The Harmonious Blacksmith
- Auld Lang Syne
These melodies once drifted across the Oval Maidan, giving Bombay a soundscape unlike any other city in India.
Why These Tunes Are No Longer Appropriate
The original repertoire was entirely British and European—patriotic songs, hymns, and popular airs of the Victorian era. In colonial Bombay, this was intentional: the tower was meant to project imperial prestige.
But in independent India, melodies such as Rule Britannia or God Save the Queen no longer reflect national identity. The silence of the carillon today is partly due to mechanical decline, but partly because the original musical programme is culturally outdated.
A restored carillon should honour the tower’s history while embracing India’s own musical heritage.
What Could a Modern Indian Carillon Play?
A sensitive, heritage‑appropriate repertoire might include instrumental arrangements of:
- Jana Gana Mana (national anthem)
- Saare Jahaan Se Achha
- Vande Mataram (instrumental refrain only)
- Vaishnava Jana To
- Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram
These melodies are dignified, recognisable, and suitable for bell arrangements.
Why Restore the Carillon?
Restoring the Rajabai Tower’s carillon would:
- revive a unique piece of India’s sonic heritage
- reconnect Mumbai with its Victorian engineering legacy
- transform the tower from a silent monument into a living heritage experience
- create a cultural attraction comparable to European clock towers
- honour both the tower’s colonial origins and India’s post‑independence identity
The Rajabai Tower was designed not only to be seen, but to be heard. Bringing back its music—updated for modern India—would restore the tower’s full meaning and return a lost voice to Mumbai’s historic skyline.
Acknowledgments
- Chris Pickford, Archives Team – Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust
- John Taylor & Co
- Lund and Blockley catalogue
