winston churchill is said to have briefly come here on his way to madras the building stands where the last anglomaratha battle was fought on november 5 1817 between the forces of the east india company and bajirao ii they aver that there is little continuity of officebearers and every change means the new incumbents press ahead with their own plans a city firm was later asked to do research for restoring the building but its services were terminated a few years later without an explanation at one time there were iron stairways at the rear for servants carrying out dry sanitation water closets were installed only after world war ithe interiors consisted of congregation halls with beautiful chandeliers and panelled walls and several smaller rooms some with ornamental coffered ceilings and some lit by clerestory openings what followed were illconceived structural and functional alterations and adaptations freres successor sir seymour fitzgerald who carried out the furnishing also met with criticism when he installed a 500 chandelier in the ballroom the highlight of the twostoried structure is its 80foot tower described as a victorian rendering of an italian campanile carrying a water tank and capped by a wrought iron cupola with a flagstaff they only added to the inherent design and structural flaws of the original building such as water pipes concealed in the stone work that led to the deterioration of woodwork and masonry umpteen deadlines have since been missed and the work is far from over the main hall was linked to the kitchen by an underground tunnel for servants to carry food trolleys and reheat the food along the way officials have given various reasons for the delay but observers blame it on bad project management built in 186471 as the only fullscale government house in the then bombay presidency this building was designed by a member of the staffordshire family of builders james trubshawe and built by a government engineer named howard yet frere himself the governor from 1862 to 1867 could never live in the mansion because it wasnt complete when he left india the surrounding park complete with stepped lawn like tuscany and a winter garden like scarborough was laid out by captain meliss they say that despite having the required money the uop is not equipped with expedient processes and systems to handle an exercise of this scale the 60000 sq ft building was handed over to the uop in 1948 the structure built in grey trapstone with pink granite dressings is in the romanesque or italianate gothic style in 2008 a mumbaibased firm was commissioned for executing a 15crore programme to rebuild the roof replace damaged masonry and woodwork reinforce the walls and spruce up electrical firefighting and seismic safety provisions however he faced severe criticism back home for building a palatial building in the aftermath of mumbais cotton crash of 1865 yet the upkeep of the building was mostly haphazard lacking even basic prerequisites such as a maintenance manual the