This gorgeous museum (bdlmuseum.org; ₹20), built in Renaissance revival style in 1872 as the Victoria & Albert Museum, sits within Byculla’s leafy Jijamata Udyan. Its restored Palladian hall offers an elegant glimpse into the city’s social, cultural and industrial past. Inside, you’ll find exquisitely crafted clay dioramas depicting 19th-century life in Bombay, alongside rare maps that chart the city’s shifting shoreline, ornate silverware from local guilds, mill machinery, wooden models of architectural landmarks and decorative arts from across India. Closed Wednesday. Outside, the original Kala Ghoda statue and a towering Elephanta elephant anchor the museum’s historic setting.
In October 2025, the museum marked a major cultural milestone when Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, Italian stalwart Caravaggio’s radiant 16th-century masterpiece, went on view for a month as part of L’invenzione della luce (The Invention of Light) exhibition.