Lunch at Britannia, Then a Wander Around Ballard Estate, a Beautiful and Sleepy Backwater

BRITANNIA & CO. is a lovely piece of vintage Bombay. It occupies the ground floor of an elegant building, which dates from the early 1920s and was designed by the Scottish architect George Wittet. He also designed the Gateway of India, the imposing triumphal arch at Apollo Bunder in the Indo-Saracenic style, which was built to commemorate the (presumably triumphal) visit of King George V to this part of his empire in 1911. Unfortunately for King George, he only saw the rather less exciting small cardboard version of it, since the actual building was not completed until 1924.