February 12, 2025

2 thoughts on “Altamont Road: Tigers and humble origins to billionaires

  1. HELLO, Nice to meet you. I read your article above with much interest. I thought you might like see my comments here (with images):-
    https://www.facebook.com/thevoiceofmalabarhills – I made following comments on the post 20 Jan 2023; “Our People on the Hills – MRS. (CHIEF JUSTICE) SUJATA VASANT MANOHAR (RETD.)

    FACEBOOK COMMENTS: with images….
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    Hi, does anyone have a photo of “Altamont”, the house of Sir Willam Yardley, Knight, Chief Justice Supreme Court of Judicature, “Bombay” (from 1852)..
    CC : MRS. (JUSTICE) SUJATA VASANT MANOHAR (RETD.) – first woman Chief Justice of the Bombay and Kerala High Courts.
    That the Malabar/Cumballa street was named after it, is a pretty safe call I reckon.
    In fact – “The once unspoiled Altamont Road was originally named after a Bungalow called Altamont that stood on this magnificent tree-canopied avenue.” ref: The Voice of Malabar Hills Hills 20 Oct 2014 ( ‘the tenth most expensive road on the planet’.)
    Various Almanacs, give his addrees there. Allan’s Indian Mail has “Lady S Yardley” giving birth there in 1849 (see attached). So Yardley was there before becoming Chief Justice.
    I only have a long distance photograph c1853 of it : “Sir W Yardley’s house in the distance”, from the Chirstchurch steeple, Byculla (by my photographer ancestor, WH Stanley Crawford, “The Grove”, Mazagon). It’s the ONLY house in the distance in the frame! (see in comments.)
    My GG-grandfather Stanley was the Secretary of the Bombay P’graphic Soc. and Sir Yardley was the Patron. (Stanley later went into family business of shipping agency, Malabar plantations, etc, etc).
    I have shown on an 1887 map where I think Yardley’s house was – long gone (next comment). It appears from an 1855 map that it was where (or near) a “flagstaff” was, (high point for shipping coming from west I presume.)
    🙂 Ian (Melbourne Aust).
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    This is the only clear view of any house in the distance to be seen – above the tree tops. “Altamont” was on top of Cumballa hill, so the “deeper” background behind it appears to be low cloud (?). Unless, there was a much higher ridge closer to the shore and it’s been lowered by quarrying for reclaimation nearby?
    And I’m reasonably sure that Stanley was taking the photo especially for Sir Yardley. Both were in Bombay Photographic Society – and why otherwise take such a nondescript photo which took such great lenghts to haul bulky photo equipment up a high church steeple!?
    Surely he didn’t make a huge mistake and photograph the wrong house! It would not have made the cut to be entered in the Society’s first Journal (no.1) which was then presented to Lady Canning in 1856.
    NB : “By 1855 Crawford’s interest had begun to turn toward paper negatives and he showed a large group before the Photographic Society of Bombay, of which he was secretary. The prints he showed in the society’s 1856 exhibition were so admired that the negatives were examined, bringing pleasure to the council, which, according to the Journal of the Photographic Society of Bombay, had “no hesitation in saying they are, as a whole, the finest and best collection we ever saw,” also noting that Crawford had “long borne a high name as a Daguerreotypist, and . . . some of his best specimens were on view.”
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    I have shown on an 1887 map where I think Yardley’s house was – long gone (next comment). It appears from an 1855 map that it was where (or near) a “flagstaff” was, (high point for shipping coming from west I presume.)”

    Cheerio, Ian.

  2. I have since determined to my satisfaction that the roof of the building just above the tree line is actually the new, large 2 story Servants Quarters at the Byculla Club – race course.

    Yardley’s house “in the distance” and Cumballa Hills are unfortunatley much too faded/washed out to a mere blur. But with Photoshop manipulation, it can be made out, on the ridge line, between the trunk of the Brab tree and (the line of) the roof of the Byculla Club servants quarters. Cheers, Ian.

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