Whist Bungalow or Pradeepa Hall (Sinhala: විස්ට් බංගලාව) is a 19th-century mansion located in Modara (Mutwal) in Colombo District, Sri Lanka.
History
This bungalow is said to have been built in 1804 by Henry Augustus Marshall (1776-1841), a British colonial administrator in British Ceylon for holding "whist parties" on Sunday evenings (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009; Manathunga, 2016). The next owner, Sir Richard Morgan (1821-1876) who was the Acting Chief Justice of Ceylon in 1874 improved the property and added a garden to it (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009). The ownership of the bungalow then passed among the hands of a few elite families including barrister Louis Pieris and V.A. Sugathadasa (Manathunga, 2016).
The property was used as a Police house and a tea store until it was taken over by the government and refurbished by the Urban Development Authority in 1980 (Manathunga, 2016). It was turned into a venue for public functions by Prime Minister R. Premadasa in 1987 (Manathunga, 2016). The bungalow is presently used as a reception hall for weddings.
The bungalow
The single-storey bungalow is modelled in the Neoclassical style. The walls are thick (450 mm) and the grand porch with massive circular columns, decorative arches, the gable roof, and collonaded verandas display British architectural features (De Silva & Chandrasekara, 2009).
References
1) De Silva, N.; Chandrasekara, D.P., 2009. Heritage Buildings of Sri Lanka. Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka, ISBN: 978-955-0093-01-4. p.153.
2) Manathunga, S. B., 2016. Pauranika Sthana Saha Smaraka: Kolamba Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN: 955-9159-39-9. pp.83-84.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 28 September 2022
