The Alfred House

As a person who lived in Colombo 03 and a student of the University of Colombo, I often came across Alfred House Gardens, Alfred House Road, Alfred House Avenue, Alfred Place signboards and wondered what is this Alfred House. And I always forgot to search until I started reading "Colombo" by Mohan Raj Madawala. As you all know I'm a bookworm and once I get my hands on a book I stop everything and start reading it. So while I was reading suddenly Alfred House popped up. I was like.. wait. Is this the same Alfred House we are talking about? So I immediately googled Alfred House... and boy there it is. So I was reading a book about Alfred House while I was in a land once belonged to Alfred House? (I read it while in the place I used to stay at Colombo 03) It felt so crazy to think about it at that moment. About 150 years ago it was the Alfred House garden. I started imagining flowers, fountains, gardeners working in the garden etc.. And all of a sudden I wanted to know if it's still there so I can go there immediately and see it. And sadly I found out that it gradually dismantled and was demolished in 1980s. The above picture is the only remaining picture of this magnificent 100 roomed mansion. It was extracted from page 130 of The Duke of Edinburgh in Ceylon, A book of elephant and Elk sport by John Capper. And then I immediately called my 92 years old grandma who was born in 1926 and was a teacher at Thurstan College Colombo 03. So I assumed she must have seen the Alfred House before it was demolished.

Unfortunately she said she has no memory of an Alfred House but she asked me to see if I can find out about the owner of that place. So I googled again and told her what I found out which jogged her memory back. So today I'm gonna tell you everything I found out about Alfred House and it's owner who deserves much more fame.

So a long time ago the land where Alfred House was built was a part of a coconut estate belonged to Ambanwela Rala and in 1840s 125 acres of this land has been bought by Charles Edward Layard. He built a mansion on this land called "Bagatalle Walawwa" (Yes the famous Bagatalle road is the road which lead to Bagatalle Walawwa). The mansion was later bought by a millionaire businessman Jeronis De Soysa and he transformed it into a 100 roomed mansion. Sir Charles Henry De Soysa who was one of the wealthiest Ceylonese in 19th Century who also happens to be Jeronis De Soysas nephew inherited the Bagatalle Walawwa after his death. He is also Sri Lankas first Knight Bachelor and well known for his charity such as De soysa maternity hospital, Prince and princess of Wales colleges etc.

Sir Charles Henry De Soysa was the only son of Jeronis De Soysa and Francesca De Soysa. He had his primary education at the Palliyagodella Buddhist Temple and secondary education at Colombo Academy. After completing studies he became an apprentice under his father and Susew De Soysa and he got married to Cathrine De silva. The couple had eight sons and seven daughters.

An old photo of Colombo 03 

Sir Charles Henry had the privilege of hosting Duke of Edinburgh, who was the first British Royalty to visit Ceylon in 1870s and he reconstructed 120 acres of the land for it and Bagatale Walawwa became the Alfred House afterwards. It is said that crockery and cutlery for the occasion were made of gold and studded with gems and pearls and there were Champagne taps.
Sir Charles Soysa owned 48 mansions within Colombo city according to literature. It is so sad that we are not able to see the luxury Alfred House mansion today but you will be delighted once you read the next paragraph.

Regina Walawwa

In 1921 Patrick Geddes proposed a new road named Duplication road as a part of the new city planning and it bisected the Alfred Gardens which made new roads such as Queens road, Alfred House Avenue, Alfred House road etc. As I mentioned before Sir Charles had lot of children and  they built their own mansions on the lands they inherited from their father. And we can still see two of those mansions; Lakshmigiri and Regina Walawwa. Yes you heard me right. College House (which is now the administive building of the University of Colombo) is the Regina Walawwa which belonged to Thomas Henry Aruthur De Soysa. Construction of the mansion was completed in 1912 and he named the house after his wife,  Regina Perera. He sold the house to Ceylon government to establish the University of Colombo in 1920. 

Entrance of the Saifee Villa

The other mansion Lakshmigiri always made me curious. I used to look at it whenever I had a time and wondered what was that huge mansion. So in the freshman year I walked down the road to see the nameplate of the mansion and it said " Saifee Villa". I thought what a strange name to a mansion and googled for more information, but until I read Colombo and started digging information I never thought all of these are connected. So Saifee Villa was used to be the Lakshmigiri  which belonged to J.R. De Soysa, the second son of Sir Charles. The gates of Lakshmigiri was inspired by the gates of the Buckingham Palace and the S on the crown of the gate symbolized Soysa. It is said that J.R. De Soysa was interested in horse racing and he built the western and eastern towers of laskhmigiri to watch races taking part in the Race course, Colombo. Unfortunately he had financial difficulties and the house was mortgaged. Prior to the exodus of British troops from Sri Lanka they have ransacked the place and lot of valuables were stolen from the lakshmigiri. The house was featured in Kaliyugaya film by Lester James Peiris and currently a Muslim family owns the mansion and hosts many events. Me and my friend used to enjoy the fireworks from those functions back then.

I am so sad that we are not able to see these historically valuable places anymore and wish if I could go to past and see the extravagant architecture of colonial era from my own eyes. Now I really would like to do a request from all the owners of these historical mansions. Please do not demolish these buildings with historical values and maintain them with care. Let the new generations to have a peak of history. Thank You.

Photo Credits :

Photo of the Alfred House : Flickr

Old Pictures of Colombo 03 : Found on Facebook. Credits goes to owners

Photo of the Regina Walawwa: Captured by me last year

Photo of the Saifee Villa : Captured by Vindula Kumaranayake