CST designer’s descendant makes maiden visit to Mumbai

Mumbai: Nearly 139 years after the construction of Mumbai’s iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) building began, the great-great-granddaughter of its designer English architectural engineer Frederick William Stevens, Diana Robertson, visited the heritage building and his gravesite at Sewri on Thursday.

Ms Robertson, though knowledgeable about the achievements of her forebears, said that she had no idea that people in India and Mumbai in particular still revere Stevens as much as they do. “I was coming down to India and, while planning the trip, someone had told me that there is a museum at CST with the initial drawings of this magnificent structure and that historians as well as history lovers still talk about him,” she said.

Opening up about her visit to Stevens’ gravesite, Ms Robertson, who currently lives in town of South Hampton in the United Kingdom, said, “I broke down at his grave. The beauty of his work as well the way his memory is held dear by preservation of his grave was something I did not expect myself.”

Ms Robertson, who now is a proud grandmother of a six-year-old girl, Ottie, said that she is glad that she made the trip and will tell her grandchild of her heritage when she grows up. She said, “I had been wanting to come and visit for almost 40 years but for some reason I ended up come to the city only today, but I am glad I did.”