Churches, Post Offices & Civic Buildings

Dutch Reformed churches, Anglican spires, the General Post Office — the quiet civic furniture of a colonial century.

The colonial state was a paper-producing machine, and it built a paper-producing infrastructure to match. Post offices, telegraph exchanges, courthouses, public libraries, Dutch Reformed and Anglican churches — all in the same restrained civic style, often by the same Public Works Department architects, scattered across the island in the late 19th century.

Most are still doing their original job. The General Post Office in Colombo Fort still sells stamps. The Nuwara Eliya Post Office, mock-Tudor in red brick, still handles the local mail. The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort still holds Sunday services.

Stories under this theme

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The Grandeur and the Gloom: A History of Adisham and the Uva Highlands

High above the misty valleys of Haputale, where the Uva highlands roll into blue-green distance, stands one of Sri Lanka’s most atmospheric colonial landmark…