Long-form heritage travel writing from across colonial Sri Lanka — researched on foot, written slowly, illustrated with the buildings and landscapes that still stand.
Colombo tramways | Long before Colombo became a city of crowded buses, three-wheelers and endless traffic, electric trams carried generations of Ceylonese th…
Long before modern buses became the familiar sight on Sri Lanka s roads, the double-decker was part of everyday travel. Some had already carried thousands of…
An advertisement published in The Times of Ceylon on 25 July 1930 announced the opening of a new cinema on Parsons Road. The Regal was preparing to welcome i…
An old postcard of Prince Street brings back a Colombo of department stores, smartly dressed shoppers, motorcars and afternoons spent in the heart of the cit…
There was a time when the northern end of Kandy Lake was not simply a place to admire the scenery. It was part of the town s everyday life, where people came…
Ceylon cinnamon peelers | Long before Ceylon became famous for its tea, another crop had already carried the island’s name across the world. Behind the cinna…
Before bridges and motor vehicles changed the way people travelled, the humble Paruwa carried people, bullock carts and goods across the rivers of Old Ceylon…
colonial bridal fashion in Ceylon | Long before the white wedding gown became familiar in Sri Lanka, brides dressed according to the customs of their familie…
An Old Name in a Changing Colombo There are some Colombo street names we use without ever stopping to wonder where they came from. Armour Street is one of…
Gaffoor’s Building colombo| Long before Colombo became a city of glass towers, traffic lights and hurried office workers, there was another Colombo. A city …
In April 1954, amid the mist-covered tea plantations of Nuwara Eliya, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, made a visit that would become an enduring chapte…
1926 Ceylon coins | In 1926, a copper cent and a little square five-cent coin passed through the hands of people across British Ceylon. A century later, thes…
Kotugodella Fort Sri Lanka | Long before the railway climbed through Idalgashinna and the hills of Ceylon were covered in tea, these mountains witnessed a ve…
Long before the hill country became a landscape admired by tourists, its narrow footpaths were the everyday roads of plantation life. An old Ceylon postcard …
There was a time when the sound of wooden wheels, the steady footsteps of a bullock and the occasional call of a cart driver were familiar parts of everyday …
When Galle Face Green Was a Ceremonial Ground There was a time when Galle Face Green was more than a place for evening walks, kite flying and watching the…
An Old Bungalow in the Hills of Talawakelle Holyrood Estate Talawakelle | There is something about the old estate bungalows of Ceylon that makes them diff…
An Old Stone Church in the Tea Country All Saints’ Church Maskeliya | There is something about the old churches of Sri Lanka’s hill country that makes you…
A Tower Built to Watch Narapadu Watchtower | There is something strangely moving about old watchtowers. They were built to look outward, to watch the hori…
Somewhere in Ratnapura, more than a century ago, someone stood back far enough from this bungalow to fit the whole house into a photograph. Perhaps the ph…
An Old Register and a City Remembered There is something about an old register that photographs can never quite reproduce. Perhaps it is the handwriting. …
