College House is the administrative center of the

University of Colombo The University of Colombo (informally Colombo University or UoC) is a Public University, public research university located primarily in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the oldest institution of modern higher education in Sri Lanka. Specialised in t ...

, situated in the

Cinnamon Gardens Cinnamon Gardens ( ''Kurundu Vaththa'', ) is an affluent neighbourhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka located 3 kilometers south-east of Colombo's centre. Cinnamon Gardens is named for the former cinnamon plantation in this area. In the year 1789, there w ...

suburb of

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

, it is a national heritage site. Regina Walauwe: A College House of 100 Years
Serendib magazine, Srilankan Airlines Web (Heritage) Retrieved 05 December 2014 With construction completed in 1912, the house was built by Thomas Henry Arthur de Soysa, who was a prominent businessmen and the Consul for Chile. He was also the son of Sir Charles Henry de Soysa and named the house ''Regina Walauwa'', after his wife Regina Perera. Arthur de Soysa sold the house to the Government of Ceylon in 1920 to establish the

University College Colombo Ceylon University College was a public university college in Ceylon. Established in 1921, it was Ceylon's first attempt at university education. The college didn't award degrees under its own name but prepared students to sit the University of Lo ...

the following year. With the name of the house changed to ''College House'' on the instructions of Sir Edward Denham.The day the Queen came to Queen’s Road
recalls Stephen Prins

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

Plus. Retrieved 10 December 2014 The Library of the University College began in a room of the house with a collection of books belonging to A. Padmanabha, gifted by his father

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Ponnambalam Arunachalam Ponnambalam Arunachalam (; 14 September 1853 – 9 January 1924) was a Ceylonese civil servant and a member of the Executive Council of Ceylon and Legislative Council of Ceylon. Early life and family Arunachalam was born on 14 September 1853 ...

. Following the formation of the

it became it administrative center and housed the office of the

Vice Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth countr ...

.India House, Colombo: Portrait of a Residence, Seventy Five Years of History and Home Life
Laki, Dominic Sansoni, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne (Vishva Lekha Publishers) pp.3-5 On March 8, 1989, elements of the

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; , PLF) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 JVP ins ...

assassinated the Vice Chancellor, Prof Stanley Wijesundera at the Library Room in the College House. A new building was constructed on the ground as part of the expansion of the university administration in the 1980s and to house the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

References

External links

History of the University of Colombo
* Lakshmigiri {{University of Colombo Ceylon University College Houses in Colombo University of Ceylon University of Colombo Manor houses in Sri Lanka De Soysa family

See also

References

External links