Chor Bazaar Historical Timeline

Chor Bazaar traces its origins to the 19th century, when it grew up as a secondhand and furniture market in what was then a working-class neighborhood on the edge of British colonial Bombay. Over time it expanded into a much larger network of lanes trading everything from antiques and curios to used machine parts, eventually becoming one of the largest flea markets in India.

The market's popular name is inseparable from its own folklore: locals maintain it was originally called "Shor Bazaar," and that British officials, unfamiliar with the local pronunciation, rendered it as "Chor Bazaar" instead — a name that stuck all the more readily given the market's long association with reselling stolen and secondhand goods, real and rumored alike.