A Rajah races a Rolls Royce past Kemp’s Corner, 1921

Named so after an early 20th century chemist and druggist, Kemp & Co., that existed well into the 1970s near what is today Om Chambers, it boasts of the first flyover built in India as well as (anecdotally) what was thought to be, at a certain time in the mid-20th century, the tallest coconut tree in Bombay! With such juxtapositions as examples, nothing depicts Bombay town transitioning into a modern city better than the image that we see here.

Kwality House is the corner building that is today known for housing the chic Italian restaurant Gustoso as well as a Starbucks outlet. But much before the ground floor housed the short-lived Pizza Metro Pizza and the iconic Chinese Room for decades past, it was a showroom for Rolls Royce cars a century ago! The description accompanying the image seen here, from back in 1921, was clearly meant for it to be closer to advertorial in nature rather than “authentic” news, describing how a Rolls Royce arrives at a “depot” in Bombay on “six bullock power, with a maximum speed of two miles an hour”, heavily hinting at self-professed British superiority relative to Indian transportation at the height of the Raj. It further goes on to pander to Indian rajahs, referring to them as being the keenest judges of class and sophistication, in a thinly veiled soft sell to their most viable customer base in India.

In the 1920s, the building was called Bhedwar House, and apart from the road-access car showroom, the building had a solitary resident by the name of R.T.H. Mackenzie, a member of the Legislative Assembly in India in the first half of the 1930s, appointed via an election that was initially boycotted by the Indian National Congress and had to be postponed by some months. There was also a B.E.S.T (back when the ‘T’ stood for Tramways, not Transport!) sub-station, which still exists in some form next to the children’s toy shop Funskool. And speaking of the present, the building today, though best known for the F&B tenants mentioned above, has for the last two decades had fashion and personal care brands such as Ammarra fashion house (reopened recently at Kala Ghoda), Estaa Gems, and Rudra Spa & Salon come and go, there seems to be a slight shift towards health and fitness, with the arrival of Physique 57, a New York-based fitness brand, as well as the upstart startup Mould Fitness.

Speaking with the co-founder of Mould Fitness on whether he sees this shift as a general trend in the now-affluent area, Arjun Dhruva thinks that might not necessarily be the case: “more than a fitness-related trend, I see a move towards fast moving subscription-based plans, whether it be us or JCB Salon or even Starbucks, which has made the building a community-driven hangout spot. Also, as costs and rentals get higher here, the long term players that’ll stay will primarily be established MNCs”. Considering fast movement and the rise of MNCs is where we started off, it’ll be interesting to see what the future has in store for Kemp’s Corner, long leaving behind tall coconut trees and rajahs racing Rolls Royces!