The Corporation Hall is richly detailed with moulded wooden panels covered in gold leaf. Busts of figures representing the various communities of Mumbai hold heraldic shields with the initials CB marked on them (CB stands for Corporation of Bombay). The ceiling is made of unpolished teakwood.
At the rear of the BMC building, at the end of the garden, Frederick Stevens installed a pyav (fountain) which was a source of drinking water for horses. This fountain has figures of birds on them, hence known as the Pigeon Fountain.
Post-independence, images of British administrators were removed, and new icons were added. Among the new installations was this portrait of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj placed in the lobby of the grand staircase. Not only is Shivaji Maharaj a national hero, during his lifetime, he was much praised for taking an interest in the welfare of his people, in line with the core objective of the BMC—to uplift the quality of life of Mumbai's citizenry.
Commemorative plaque dedicated to Frederick W. Stevens as the designer and superintendent of the Municipal Buildings. Below Stevens is his assistant and resident engineer, Rao Sahib Sitaram Khanderao, who would later design (with DN Mirza) the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Also mentioned is Grattan Geary, who was President of the Corporation and friend of Stevens. Stevens had designed Geary's private villa at Lonavala.
Sir Bartle Henry Frere, governor of Bombay Presidency between 1862–67, demolished the ramparts of Fort George to allow Bombay to expand beyond the fort walls. As the city limits expanded, there was need for a municipality to overlook the civic infrastructure development of the suburbs. Accordingly, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai was created in 1865, and Arthur Crawford was appointed the first municipal commissioner.
Highlight of the BMC building is its spectacular central hall that greets visitors as they enter through the porte cochere. The hall is located directly below the inner dome and serves as an atrium, through which a grand staircase rises, flanked by a pair of winged lions. The staircase winds up to connect arcaded corridors that runs around the hollow central core.
Design for the BMC was to be selected via a competition open to architects from London. First prize was won by RF Chisholm who proposed a Hindu-Saracenic style. However, the project got delayed by a few years as new sites were considered. During the delay, Chisholm's design fell out of favour with authorities and call was made for fresh proposals.
The main entrance to the BMC building is positioned at the elbow of the V-shaped plot, facing CSMT. The entrance has a six-pillar porte cochère (coach gateway). This was originally designed for horse-driven coaches but was later adapted for motor vehicles.
The Indo-Saracenic style developed by British architects used motifs inspired from Mughal architecture and those of the Deccan Sultanates, from monuments built by the Adil Shahis (Bijapur) and Qutub Shahis (Hyderabad) to make them look more ‘Indian‘. A prominent adaptation by Frederick W. Stevens was the use of the onion-shaped dome with finial on top, which appears in buildings designed by him, including at the BMC.