THE PEOPLE OF HIGH STREET WELLAWATTE IN THE 1950s

by Hugh Karunanayake

High Street Wellawatte (now known as W.A. Silva Mawatha)was one of two roads in Colombo South that existed from as far back as the 19th century. It connected the western seaboard of Colombo with the semirural hinterland that existed eastwards to the outer Colombo areas.

High Street linked Galle Road with Havelock Road which meandered southwards to reach out to Kohuwela, Kesbewa, Horana etc It also linked up with the High Level Road at Kirillapona through Pamankade Road outreaching to Nugegoda, Maharagama, Homagama and beyond to the rubber growing district of Sabaragamuwa.

High Street is today a broad double carriageway thoroughfare lined with modern buildings and apartment blocks; a far cry from the staid narrow roadway that existed 60 years ago. With its long history as a roadway, it was the location for a large middle class population seeking convenient access to the city. Till the late 1940s when the Ebert Silva Bus Co commenced plying a bus service from Kirillapona to Wellawatte there was no public transport link between the two suburbs, the popular mode of travel being the then ubiquitous rickshaw.

Most however walked all the way from Kirillapona to Wellawatte and having reached journey’s end at Galle Road after a long walk, often in hot and humid conditions, quenched their thirst at the sherbert boutique or saruwath kadai a popular thirst aid station at the end of High Street abutting Galle Road. A glass full of sherbert replete with kasa kasa (an exotic seed) was five cents and a milk sherbert 10 cents!

High Street Wellawatte at its Galle Road intersection formed a focal point for shops that catered to the needs of the local community. Prominent among them was Swastika Stores run by A John Perera and his sons, Victor, Stephen, Eddie, Lionel, and Arkan. This was a large grocery store with imports (during the days of unrestricted imports) of all the groceries that filled the pantries of middles class Wellawatte.

Christmas time was a bustling hive of activity within the store which had its own delivery service. On the opposite side of the road was Arya Sinhala Drapery Stores founded by a migrant Davith Singho Kurukulasuriya from Belliatta in the deep south. He arrived in Wellawatte with no money but soon established himself as a key entrepreneur in the area. He opened a popular day/night eatery called Ariya Sinhala Hotel, and from then onwards had many thriving businesses in the area. He lived in a property off High Street close to Galle Road.

At the Galle Road end of High Street were two well patronised South Indian eateries one called Luxmi Villas. Next door to the thosai kadais was a billiard parlour where people met to play a game of billiards or snooker or to have a tipple. Adjoining the billiard parlour were two Tamil owned jewellery enterprises which subsequently gave way to a small set of apartments built on the site. They were possibly the first residential dwelling along High Street. On the left hand side as one proceeded from Galle Road was the home of the long resident Wijesinghe family called Palm Dale. On the opposite side were three or four free standing homes after which was the St Lawrence Orphanage and convent.

On the left hand side was the home of S.E Samarasinghe of the Postal Department. Next door lived civil servant Alfred Gogerly Moragoda and the separate home of his in laws among whom was Dr Sirimal Wickremesinghe of the MRI.

Abutting the road were two or three small compact homes with no front compound and somewhere there was a small board indicating access to a public bathing well. A footpath from the road led to the bathing well which was surrounded by a dozen or so of bathing troughs which were manually filled. These bathing facilities were privately owned and intended mainly for poorer families living in tenement homes without bathrooms. Bathing at the public well was subject to a charge of five cents.

On the opposite side of the road was the Seventh Day Adventist church. Adjoining it was Gregory Place which led to about a dozen homes mainly occupied by Burgher families among whom were the Rauxs. There was a small cottage on High Street adjoining Gregory Place with a larger property next door owned by the Roche family and which was at one time used as a motor repair garage.

Facing it was the house named Manel in which N.W. Atukorale then the Secretary to the Prime Minister Mr D.S. Senanayake lived. Next door was Wasala Walawwa the home of Asst. Postmaster General A.G. Tillekeratne. The Garnier family lived next door, the sons attending St Peters College. The Bartholomeusz family among whom were Carol and Yasmine lived in the adjoining property and they like the Garniers emigrated to Australia years ago.

Opposite stood a row of about six or eight small tenement houses all occupied by Burgher families. The property was owned by Dr Charles Fernando who demolished the houses and established a nursing home on its grounds. Years later after his death, the nursing home was purchased by P.Ramanathan a man closely associated with the horse racing industry who lived about two doors away from the hospital. He named it Sri Lanka Hospital. It is now known as Royal Hospital.

On the opposite side on a two acre site donated by philanthropist Dr W.A.de Silva to the Sri Lankadhara Society which established an orphanage and an elders home on the site. The grounds extended right up to Mallika Lane which connected High Street to Chapel Lane.

Opposite Mallika Lane stood a small road named Ramsgate where about three or four families lived including the Huberts – Raju and Babu who attended St Peter.s College.

Next to Ramsgate stood the home of Felix Rasanayagam and his son Godfrey. This house was later occupied by the Seneviratnes including sons Harold, Chandra and Tissa who were well known musicians of the time.

Next to Mallika Lane proceeding eastward on High Street was an old Baptist Missionary Sinhalese School founded in the 19th century. It was a small school catering to not more than 50 children at Primary School Level mostly from the poorer families in the area. Opposite the school was the home of W.A, Kelly an auctioneer who was married to the daughter of A.W. Jansz the proprietor of A.W. Jansz, General, Hardware and Liquor Stores the principal retail establishment in Wellawatte of the time.

Facing the entrance to Hampden Lane stood the consulting rooms of Dr S.W.C. Ratnesar. Next door was a cottage named Villa Olivia with its front walls bordering the paved footpath that ran on the side of High Street. Frank Modder, a journalist at the Times of Ceylon, lived there with his family which included sons St John and Wester. This house was demolished in the 1960s for road widening.

At this point stood a few boutiques on either side of the road and in between on the right hand side was the home of S.E. Fernando, an official of the Ceylon Turf Club. Next door was the home of the Whites with a large family of about a dozen offspring.

On the opposite side bordering Peterson Lane lived the Gauder family including son Ralph attending St Peter’s College and later to be a tea planter and well known rugger player. Opposite Peterson Lane was the home of JC Ferdinands, well known surveyor in the area and his sons, Rupert one time National Tennis Champion, Adrian, a jazz drummer and daughter, Rosemarie, who was an acclaimed dancer.

Next door was a tea boutique called Hadji Safaya its name derived from the Sapphire Cinema which stood on the opposite side. The cinema was built in 1951 and at various times run by the Jabir Cader Group, the K.Gunaratnam Group and finally by P. Ramanathan who ran the Sri Lanka Hospital. The Sapphire was in its later days screening South Indian films and was subject to an arson attack during the 1983 riots which destroyed it completely.

Beside the cinema was a licensed stand for six rickshaws. Proceeding further down on the opposite side were a set of boutiques and the local cooperative store established during the war years. Adjoining it was a house named Silvermere, the home of Wellawattearatchige Abraham Silva better known as W.A. Silva, the famous Sinhalese novelist who lived there till his death and in whose name High Street was renamed.

The other famous Sinhalese novelist Martin Wickremesinghe presided at the public meeting at which the name High Street was erased from the map and W.A. Silva Mawatha inserted in its place. Pamankade Lane commenced alongside Silvermere and beyond it was the home of the Potgers long resident there. Old Potger was woken one night by the sound of an intruder who when accosted stabbed him in the throat which fortunately did not prove fatal but a scratchy voice remained with him for the rest of his life to remind him of his bravado!

Opposite was a small boutique and an ayurvedic physician’s chambers which adjoined a small cul de sac where there was a row of about six small attached homes occupied by Burgher families including the Bermans. A long standing firewood depot and a motorcar repair shop were next door. On the opposite side was the home of Surveyor H.W. Perera and that of H.R. Porritt with his family. This included his wife’s children by her former marriage, Tony, Roseanne, and Meropi Lucas. Next door lived the family of Colville de Kretser with a large family of children including, Bryce, Brian, Megan et al.

On the opposite side was a little cottage with a notice advising passers by that it was the home of a “Registered Midwife” In that day and age a good many births were at home and the midwife was on call – not a gynaecalogist! Further away was Ash Tip Road the site of a Municipal Housing Scheme almost entirely occupied by activists of the Lanka Sama Samaj Party.

At election time men and women from the housing scheme in red attire would go in a spectacular procession to cast their votes. From there onwards High Street entered the small town of Pamankade. Almost at the end of High Street on the right hand side was the Dharmodaya Pirivena established at the turn of the 20th century. The peace and harmony which existed between the different ethnic groups can be gauged by the fact that the shrine room of the Pirivena was donated by a Hindu Advocate S. Suntharalingam, proprietor of Leela Press , and the temple belfry donated by a Burgher, the well known entrepreneur of the time, Donovan Andree. Adjoining the entry to the Pirivena grounds was Aloysius Stores a stationary store cum news agency run by a popular merchant from the Baratha community.

Cosmopolitan Wellawatte in the 1950s was part of a broader but clearly stratified society. People in the middle and upper classes wore trousers and those in the working or labouring classes wore sarongs and some of the latter were barebodied waist upwards. The many boutiques and eateries along High Street were mainly meant for the working class and no trousered person would have ventured into those modest facilities excepting perhaps to buy a cigarette over the counter where the boutique keeper would treat him with utmost respect.

Prominent in the middle class were the Burgher families most of whom lived in rented homes and now have almost completely disappeared from the scene having found greener pastures overseas. High Street, once home to a genteel cosmopolitan community, has over the past two decades been transformed into a busy commercial and retail precinct and these notes will hopefully bring back memories of a much traversed road with an endearing name.