The Oval Maidan in Marine Lines is a large open sports ground that serves as the breathing space of South Mumbai, bordered by the finest collection of Art Deco residential buildings in the world — the western flank of the maidan faces a terrace of 1930s apartments that was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 as part of the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai.
On any afternoon, several cricket matches proceed simultaneously on the maidan, a tradition unbroken for over a century. The juxtaposition of white-clad cricketers against the sweeping Art Deco facades is quintessentially Bombay. The adjacent Rajabai Clock Tower and Bombay University Library form part of the same heritage corridor. The maidan is a free, open space.