Colaba Causeway

Colaba Causeway is South Mumbai's best-known street market. Stalls, old cafes and colonial buildings line the road a few minutes from the Gateway of India.

Colaba Causeway, officially Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, began as a land link built by the East India Company and completed in 1838. It joined Colaba and Old Woman's Island, the last two of Bombay's seven islands, to the rest of the city; before that Colaba could be reached on foot only at low tide. The causeway was widened in the 1860s and carried horse-drawn trams from 1873. Today it is one of South Mumbai's liveliest shopping streets.

The pavements are packed with stalls selling clothes, costume jewellery, bags, shoes, trinkets and souvenirs, alongside small electronics and music shops, antiques dealers and a long-running pavement book stall. Bargaining is expected at the stalls. Between the shops are some of the city's best-known cafes and restaurants, such as Cafe Mondegar with its murals by the cartoonist Mario Miranda.

The Art Deco Regal Cinema stands at the northern end, and the Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya are a few minutes' walk away, so the street fits easily into a day in Colaba and Fort. Late afternoon and evening are the busiest times. Keep an eye on bags in the crowds.