The former industrial heartland of Mumbai — the area of cotton mills that once employed hundreds of thousands of workers and powered the city's economy through the colonial period and into independence. The mills closed through the 1980s and 1990s, and what followed is one of the most dramatic urban transformations in the country: the vast mill compounds were converted into malls, hotel towers, corporate campuses, and residential buildings, creating a new commercial district almost from scratch in the space of a decade.
Phoenix Mills is the flagship redevelopment — a vast mall and entertainment complex built around the restored brick chimneys of the original mill. The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) at Nariman Point, just south, is the city's main venue for classical music, theatre, and film. The neighbourhood now has one of the densest concentrations of restaurants and bars in the city, particularly in the streets around Kamala Mills Compound, which has become a popular late-night destination.