East Lawn

The Museum’s east garden is a lush and tranquil outdoor venue that is lined with statues of former colonial officials.It also houses the stately Gas Lamp, which used to stand at the Metro cinema cross section; and the 6th century Elephanta elephant, one of the city’s most important artefacts. The Museum's East Garden was known in Mumbai as 'the graveyard'. Broken statues of former colonial governors were kept here. The garden stands today as testimony of how good design and conservation can transform environements. The garden was redesigned and repaved. New lighting systems and festive banners were installed. All the objects were cleaned and restored. New plinths and signage were made for all the statues and urban artifacts. Displayed in the open air, the marble statues of Queen Victora and other dignitaries had severely deteriorated on account of dirt, dust, bird droppings and salts in the environment. The presence of micro-organisms further threatened the statues. After cleaning with a mixture of water and salvents the paper pulp poultice method was used to treat the salts, and algaecides employed to attack the algae deeply ingrained in the marble. The statues are now displayed with a protective coating to prevent such algal attack in future and minimise the consequences of dust and atmospheric pollution.