The Old Town Hall in Pettah, Colombo served as the Municipal Hall until 1928. It became a museum and cultural center after renovations in 1979.
Pettah Old Town Hall
The Old Town Hall is located at No. 290 on Main Street in Pettah in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It is considered the first town hall built in Colombo (Corea, 1988). History
The old town hall building was designed and constructed by the government architect J. G. Smither of the Public Work Department as the Town Hall of Colombo Municipal Council (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). It was declared open in 1873, by Sir William Gregory, the then British Governor of Ceylon (Rajapakshe et al., 2018). In May 1928, the building was given to the Marketing Department as the town hall was shifted to a new building located at Vihara Maha Devi Park in Cinnamon Gardens. The building was then used as a public market.
Under the direction of Ranasinghe Premadasa, the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, the building was renovated in 1979 by the municipal council during the tenure of the office of B. Sirisena Cooray, Mayor of Colombo. On 16 December 1984, it was re-es…
