Kandy Town I Knew In Mid-Twentieth Century

By Hm Nissanka Warakaulle

The former Kandy town now has progressed to a city. During the time Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) got independence Kandy was not a very busy town. In fact, after nine o’clock in the evening the town was dead except for very few people on the roads and in the eating houses and of course, the places where bacchanalian spirits were available.

There were no buses available after nine. From Saturday afternoon and Sunday whole day the town was devoid of any activity, except for a few hotels which were open such as the Silverdale, Paivas, East China Restaurant and the Muslim Hotel. The buses and taxis were also available till evening.

The most important landmark near the bus stand was the clock tower which had been constructed by Mr. Ismail, the owner of the motor spare parts shop close to where the clock tower stands. It was built in memory of his son who died in an accident when the vehicle he was riding went down the precipice at Kadugannawa.

Many people passing through Kandy check the time from this clock tower. From the day it was commissioned up to date it has indicated the correct time on all faces of the tower unlike most of the other clock towers that were erected in many parts of the country to coincide with the Gam Udawa.

The only stand for buses plying around Kandy and long-distance buses to places such as Anuradhapura was on the clock tower side of the road. The buses to Colombo were in the Goodshed bus stand past the railway station and the post office. In front of the old market was the stand for vehicles which included cars, vans and lorries.

The corner section in front of the Wales Theatre was the hiring car stand. Later, new bus stands were established with more buses being used. The town service buses to Peradeniya, Penideniya and Ampitiya were shifted to the new bus stand on Torrington Road. The Colombo buses had a new stand near the Technical College and the Scout Headquarters. Another bus stand was on King Street.

Up to the end of 1957 these bus stands were used by the buses of the private bus companies such as the Kandy Omnibus Company which operated the town services, the PS Bus Co. operating on the Daulagala area, the WH Bus Co. operating on the Hanguranketha area, Sri Lanka Bus Co on the Kandy -Colombo Road up to Kadugannawa, Madyamalanka Bus Co. which had the monopoly on the Gampola area and beyond and the Silverline Bus Co. operating beyond Katugastota. Once the bus services were nationalized in 1958 only the CTB buses used these bus stands.

The old market was an open building if my memory serves me right. It was octagonal in shape, with stalls all around located according to what they were selling. Vegetable stalls were in one row, fruits in another, the fish, beef and pork stalls in still another row. Dry goods and rice were in a separate area. There was no dried fish stalls in the old market as all the dried fish boutiques were at the bottom of Colombo Street which people used to refer to as the Karawala Kada Veediyan(dried fish street).

The streets in the town carried named different names from what they are today. Dalada Veediya from the Clock Tower junction up to the Dalada Maligawa was known as Ward Street with the statue of Governor Ward standing just past the Queen’s Hotel. Trincomalee Street was the old name of DS Senanayake Veediya. Yatinuwara Veediya was earlier known as Browrigg Street. Castle Hill Street is now Kotugodella Veediya. King Street is Raja Veediya. Beyond the Maligawa the road was known as Malabar Street.

With the new market coming up and with the demolition of the old one, the hiring car stand was done away with and the Wales Theatre too was demolished. The new Wales Theatre was constructed above Torrington Road. But later this too was demolished to construct the new DS Senanayake public library. Another cinema that was demolished was the Bogambara Theatre. This was demolished to give way to the new Bogambara Stadium.

Before the stadium came up, all inter- club football matches were played there. On Independence Day, we as schoolchildren participated in the march past which was also held at Bogambara. This playground was used during the Kandy Esala Perahera for the carnival which was patronized by most of the people who came to watch the Perahera.

Adjoining the Bogambara grounds was the Bogambara prison. When football matches and other events took place on Bogambara, some prisoners used to hang on the bars of the windows to watch the play. Now the prison has been shifted to Pallekele. On the other side of the Bogambara grounds was the road to the Kandy hospital and there was a bus plying from the Kandy bus stand to the hospital.

St Paul’s College was situated next to St. Paul’s Church. This school was shifted from its earlier location as it was within the Dalada Maligawa sacred area and a new school established in Asgiriya with the new name, Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya. Just near the pond with a fountain was the Magistrate’s Court. The other courts were behind the Dalada Maligawa.

Close to the Empire hotel were all the chambers of the lawyers. All these courts and lawyers’ chambers were shifted to the new court complex which came up between Getambe and Suduhumpola on the other side of the new road and railway line.

The Dalada Maligawa was not protected with barricades and vehicles going to Tennekumbura and beyond were able to go past the temple. People traveling by bus from beyond Lewella and from Talatuoya were able to alight just in front of the Temple and go in through any of the doors which were always kept open, worship and leave through any door. This unlike now where one must use the main entrance only. Now all the vehicular traffic going beyond the Temple have to go round the Kandy lake and get onto the Malabar Street through a byroad (even during a period when there is a scarcity of fuel).

Kandy town then was not that congested as it is now and there was less vehicular traffic. Parking was permitted anywhere in the town. This was possible as only a few owned vehicles at that time and most of the people used public transport. There were many rickshaws parked in many places of the town. Many people used this man drawn means of transport. In fact, when my elder brother and I were admitted to Kingswood College, we used to travel to school and back in a rickshaw. We used to egg the poor rickshaw puller to run faster not realizing that it made him more fatigued.

Kandy then had only the Queen’s Hotel as a starred hotel. Later the Suisse Hotel came up on the side of the lake where the Malwatta Temple is located. Other than these two, the smaller hotels in town were the Silverdale and Paivas on Brownrigg Street, Castle Hotel, King’s Hotel, Empire Hotel, Lyon’s Café and East China restaurant.

Travelling from the Colombo Road or the Gampola Road, vehicles had to take the Kandy-Peradeniya Road, up to Girls’ High School junction where the road bifurcates with one going past the Good Shepard Convent and the lower road going past the Railway station and the main post office to reach the town. The post office was situated just near the level crossing and a little further up on the same side of the railway line was the police station which was approachable from the lower road as well as the upper road.

Both of these were very old buildings though the architecture was nothing to write home about. But still they had some sort of a majestic look. Later, to ease the congestion on the Peradeniya Road, a new road was constructed from Getambe to Kandy along the Meda Ela embankment which was named William Gopallawa Mawatha which went past the Kandy Hospital to town.

The railway line from Kandy to Matale ran adjoining the bus stand, under the bridge of the upper road, past the Meerakkam mosque which was near the level crossing with the road leading to Asgiriya on either side of the mosque. Thereafter the railway line goes under the Mahaiyawa bridge to the station at Mahaiyawa. From there it proceeds to Katugastota by the side of the main road and crosses bridge over the Mahaweli river to get to the Katugastota station.

In addition to the normal trains, there were railcars that used to run from Katugastota to Kandy and from Kandy to Peradeniya. There were halts at places where there were schools and offices so that schoolchildren and office workers used to travel by these railcars which were never crowded.

There were only three banks in Kandy at that time. The Mercantile Bank beside Queen’s Hotel, National and Grindlays Bank on the upstairs of the building adjoining the entrance to Torrington Road. Then Bank of Ceylon too opened a branch on Ward Place. The one and only reputed laundry, Queen’s Laundry, was also on this road. The three churches in the heart of the town were the Methodist Church on Brownrigg Street, St. Paul’s Church on Pavilion Street and the Baptist Church on Ward Street.

Kandy had the famous Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. As schoolboys we used to go to the Gardens to play cricket as there was no admission fee charged. The other two parks in Kandy were the small park in front of Muslim Hotel, now named George E de Silva Park and the park known as Wace Park which is situated on the Upper Lake Road now named Deveni Rajasinghe Mawatha . From this park one gets a bird’s eye view of ad part of the Kandy City with the Maligawa.

Now Kandy is a much developed city with new hotels, shops, branches of almost all commercial banks and supermarkets having been established. There is the new attraction of the Kandy City Centre too. But the city is very congested both with vehicular and pedestrian traffic.