Marine Drive is Mumbai's 3.6-kilometre Art Deco waterfront promenade — a sweeping arc of 1930s apartment buildings along Back Bay that locals call the 'Queen's Necklace' for the string of streetlights that curves along the shore at night. The promenade is Mumbai's evening ritual — thousands of people walking, sitting on the sea wall, eating bhel puri from beach vendors, and watching the sunset over the Arabian Sea in the kind of democratic public gathering that makes Mumbai feel alive in a way that few other megacities can match.
Chowpatty Beach at the northern end of Marine Drive is not a swimming beach (the water is polluted) but a social beach — the sand fills with families, food vendors, and the beach culture that treats the shoreline as an extension of the living room. The bhel puri (puffed rice, vegetables, and tamarind chutney) and pav bhaji (spiced vegetable curry with buttered bread) served from Chowpatty's stalls are Mumbai's most beloved street foods.
Verified Facts
Marine Drive is 3.6 kilometres long
The Art Deco buildings date to the 1930s
Locals call it the 'Queen's Necklace'
Bhel puri and pav bhaji are Mumbai's signature street foods
Get walking directions
Marine Drive, Nariman Point, Mumbai, 400021, India
