Mount Lavinia Hotel | |
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![]() The Logo of Mount Lavinia Hotel | |
General information | |
Location | 100 Hotel Road, Mount Lavinia |
Opening | 1877 |
Management | Mount Lavinia Hotel Group |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 2 |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 275 |
Number of suites | 11 |
Number of restaurants | 3 |
Website | |
http://www.mountlaviniahotel.com |
The Mount Lavinia Hotel, in Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka, is a 275-room hotel, situated at 100 Hotel Road in Mount Lavinia. It is recognised as one of the oldest and most famous hotels in the country. It has been continuously operating as a hotel since 1947, but was initially constructed as the governor's residence in 1806.
In 1805 Sir Thomas Maitland was appointed as the second governor of British Ceylon. He had acquired land at "Galkissa" (Mount Lavinia) and decided in 1806 to construct a personal residence there.
Legend has it that at a welcoming party held in his honour upon his arrival in the island he saw Lovina Aponsuwa, a local mestizo dancer, whose father was the headman of the dancing troupe. Maitland fell in love with Aponsuwa, who had been born to Portuguese and Sinhalese parents. During construction, the governor arranged to build a secret tunnel between Aponsuwa's house which was located nearby, one end inside her house and the other inside his wine cellar, so that the lovers could meet in secret.
Sir James Mackintosh, a friend of the governor, wrote in 1810 that it was "a bungalow of one storey, rustic on the outside, but handsomely laid out, and furnished beautifully".
Sir Thomas Maitland was recalled from Ceylon in 1811 and appointed the governor of Malta, where he died a bachelor.
The statue of 'Lady' Lavinia, as the girl later became known, can be found in the middle of a water fountain at the entrance of the hotel.
The next governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg recommended a further purchase of the surrounding land, 35 acres (14 ha) from 14 landowners for 18,000 Rix dollars.
Sir Edward Barnes during his second term as governor, undertook significant extensions and improvements to the building. [1] "Barnes set to work on his grand plans. Mount Lavinia was to be his ultimate creation; a magnificent residence fit for the Grand Master, such as Versailles was to Louis XIV". [2]
British military engineers redesigned the house on the lines of an Italian villa. Captain Edward Sanderson of the Royal Engineers, was the designer and master builder under Barnes’ watchful eye. The building was modelled on the ‘Banqueting House’ in Whitehall, a creation of architect Inigo Jones, also known as the ‘English Palace’. [2] The Banqueting House was refurbished by architect Sir John Soane. "Not only does the date of the refacing of the Banqueting House coincide perfectly with the building of Mount Lavinia but a marked similarity in style is also apparent between the two buildings. Inigo Jones had used the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the height of urban sophistication. At Mount Lavinia, which offered a country setting, Sanderson used the simpler Doric order and superimposed the Ionic. This pattern had been used by Palladio in building his Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza, Italy." [2]
The works were completed in 1830 however in 1831 Barnes was appointed as Commander in-Chief in India. His successor Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton chose not to reside at Mount Lavinia and it was therefore recommended that the building be disposed of. In 1842 the British government sold the building at auction, with Rev. Dr. John MacVicar, the Colonial Chaplain purchasing it. The mansion was subsequently converted into an asylum for the insane.
In 1877 the government constructed a railway line along the coast (the second railway line in Ceylon). The railway line passed in front of Mount Lavinia, connecting the house directly to the harbor at Colombo. Seeing the potential for profit, developers bought the dilapidated mansion and turned it into an opulent hotel, The Mount Lavinia Grand Hotel. Later two additional wings were added to the building.
In 1927 the hotel was purchased by Arthur Ephraums, the owner of several other prestigious hotels, the Globe Hotel, the Bristol Hotel and the Whitehorse Hotel in Colombo, and was managed by Cargills & Co. [3] The following year he sold it to C.H.Z. Fernando. [4]
In 1939 following the commencement of World War II Ceylon, the centre of the British Empire's rubber supply, quickly became a priority for the Allies and a target for the Axis forces. The Mount Lavinia Hotel was commandeered by the British Army as a supply base and housed the No 35 British General Hospital from 1942 to 1946. [5]
The hotel was sold in 1944 to Ceylon Hotels Corporation Ltd and later in 1948, the year in which Ceylon achieved Independence; the hotel was sold to H. J. Pilbrow and then sold again in 1955 to P. A. Ediriweera. [3]
In 1957 a number of scenes in the film, The Bridge on the River Kwai , were filmed at the hotel. [6]
In 1975 U. K. Edmund purchased the hotel becoming the director and chairman of the hotel until his death in 1985, when the property then passed to his son, Sanath Ukwatte, who is the present chairman of the hotel group. [3]
In January 2011 four blue plaques were installed at the hotel's entrance, commemorating Sir Thomas Maitland, Sir Robert Brownrigg, Sir Edward Paget and Sir Edward Barnes, all of whom resided in the building when it was the governor's residence. [7]
Guests who have stayed at the hotel include King Leopold of Belgium, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, writer Somerset Maugham, English film director David Lean, and actors Vivien Leigh, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck. [8]
The Kandyan Wars refers generally to the period of warfare between the British colonial forces and the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island of what is now Sri Lanka, between 1796 and 1818. More specifically it is used to describe the expeditionary campaigns of the British Army in the Kingdom of Kandy in 1803 and 1815.
General Sir Robert Brownrigg, 1st Baronet, GCB was an Irish-born British statesman and soldier. He brought the last part of Sri Lanka under British rule.
Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, population 245,974 (2012), is a large municipality in Sri Lanka, covering 2,109 ha. It lies south of the Colombo Municipal Council area and is separated from it by the Dehiwala canal which forms the northern boundary of DMMC. Its southern limits lie in Borupana Road and the eastern boundary is Weras Ganga with its canal system and it includes some areas to its east. This town has experienced extensive population growth and rapid industrialisation and urbanisation in recent years. It is home to Sri Lanka's National Zoological Gardens, which remains one of Asia's largest. Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila and Colombo Airport, Ratmalana are some important landmarks in this area. Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia and Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte being two large suburban centres of the city of Colombo function together as one large urban agglomeration in the Region. The overspill from the City in residential and commercial uses of land has rapidly urbanised these suburban centres. Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia and Sri Jayawardenpaura along with Colombo Municipal Council form the most urbanised part of the core area of the Colombo Metropolitan Region. Dehiwala and Mount Lavinia lie along the Galle Road artery, which runs along the coast to the south of the country.
U.N. Gunasekera (1922–2008), was a Sri Lankan civil engineer. He is a notable Sri Lankan civil engineer. He revolutionized engineering in Sri Lanka through his construction of high-rise buildings, including Sri Lanka's first five-star hotel and its largest five-star hotel, among various other projects.
Lieutenant General The Right Honourable Sir Thomas Maitland was a British soldier and British colonial governor. He also served as a Member of Parliament for Haddington from 1790 to 1796, 1802–06 and 1812–13. He was made a Privy Councillor on 23 November 1803. He was the second surviving son of James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, and the younger brother of James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale. Maitland never married.
The governor of Ceylon was the representative in Ceylon of the British Crown from 1795 to 1948. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon. The governor was the head of the British colonial administration in Ceylon, reporting to the Colonial Office.
S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, is a fee-levying Anglican selective entry boys' private school in Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by James Chapman, the first Anglican Bishop of Colombo, in 1851, it was founded as a college and cathedral for the new Diocese of Colombo of the Church of Ceylon, modelled on British Public school tradition. An old boy of Eton College, Bishop Chapman founded the college on the Etonian model, the school's motto of Esto perpetua being derived from that of Eton College.
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Sir Solomon Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilleke Senewiratna Rajakumaruna Kadukeralu Bandaranaike, was a Ceylonese colonial-era headmen. He was appointed as Head Mudaliyar and the aide-de-camp to the British Governor of Ceylon, therefore he was one of the most powerful personalities in British colonial Ceylon.
President's House is the official residence and workplace of the President of Sri Lanka, located at Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since 1804 it had been the residence of British Governors and Governors-General and was known as the "King's House" or the "Queen's House" until Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972.
The Grand Hotel is a four-star boutique hotel in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, that was built in the style of an Elizabethan-era manor house. The hotel has 154 rooms, including three presidential suites, four junior suites, including a governor's suite that have been maintained to preserve the traditional design. The Grand Hotel has a number of restaurants, bars and a billiards room.
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Fort (Colombo) (Sinhala: කොටුව; Tamil: கோட்டை) is the central business district of Colombo in Sri Lanka. It is the financial district of Colombo and the location of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and the World Trade Centre of Colombo from which the CSE operates. It is also the location of the Bank of Ceylon headquarters. Along the foreshore of the Fort area is the Galle Face Green Promenade, built in 1859 under the governance of Sir Henry George Ward, the Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during British colonial era. Fort is also home to the General Post Office, hotels, government departments and offices.
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