A Day in Kala Ghoda: Art, Coffee and Prints

Kala Ghoda is what happens when a city decides one neighbourhood should hold its best things: galleries beside cafés beside century-old facades, all within fifteen walkable minutes. Since opening our first store here, we have been asked one question by visiting customers more than any other — "what else should we do while we're here?" So here it is: our honest one-day itinerary for Mumbai's art district, from people who now spend every day in it.

Morning: the galleries

Start where the district starts — the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai's most democratic art space, where exhibitions change weekly and entry is free. From there, the National Gallery of Modern Art sits a few minutes away for the heavyweight collections. Even the walk between them is a gallery: Kala Ghoda's pavements, murals and restored facades reward a slow pace. February visitors get the bonus of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, when the whole district becomes one open-air exhibition.

Midday: coffee and lanes

The district's café culture is reason enough to visit — from old Irani institutions on the fringes to the specialty-coffee generation tucked into the lanes off Rampart Row. Pick any; the people-watching is uniformly excellent. Fortified, give an hour to the boutiques and design stores the area is known for — Kala Ghoda has quietly become Mumbai's browsing district, the place where independent brands put their first flags in the ground.

Afternoon: come and say hello

Which is exactly what we did. The Print Factory Experience Centre stands at Modern House, 17 Forbes Street — our first store, a few lanes from the galleries you spent the morning in. Every print we make is on the rail, every size S to 2XL is in the room, and the fabric is there to be touched: cotton poplin, crepe, cotton satin and the schiffli work our factory has run for decades. The Friday 5 lands in-store the same day it goes live online. We are open daily, 11am to 8pm — the story of why we chose Kala Ghoda is in our opening post.

Evening: the long way back

End the day the classic way: walk down to the Gateway of India as the light goes gold, or circle back for dinner in one of Kala Ghoda's restaurants — the district does everything from old-Bombay institutions to tasting menus. If your bags allow it, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (the museum whose dome you kept photographing) deserves whatever daylight you have left.

Plan your visit

The Print Factory · Experience Centre · Modern House, 17 Forbes Street, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001 · Open daily 11am–8pm · 022 4593 3249. Nearest landmarks: Kala Ghoda Circle and Jehangir Art Gallery, both a short walk. Can't make it in person? Everything ships free across India with COD and 7-day returns — start with our best sellers. And if you do come: tell us which print stopped you. That's the one we hang next.