To spot the Arcade Independence Square, just look ahead for a grand, bright white building with a shiny silver clock tower rising from its center and elegant rows of arched windows-it's impossible to miss against the lush green lawn in front of you.
Now, as you stand here with the Arcade Independence Square right before you, imagine yourself walking through the misty morning of old Colombo in the late 1800s. Picture a cluster of brand new brick buildings, walls still smelling of fresh plaster, not a hint of shopping or cinema magic yet in sight! Instead, in 1889 this place started its life as the Jawatta Lunatic Asylum-yes, believe it or not, people used to come here for a little rest and, well, a different kind of retail therapy.
Back then, the city was buzzing with debate. The old mental hospital in Borella was more like a club for pigeons and termites, so Governor Sir William Gregory decided it was time for an upgrade. Of course, as with any good construction project, there was endless fussing over the location and design-as if building a grand hospital was like picking the flavor of the year for ice cream! When they finally finished, it wasn’t fancy: rows of plain, one-story buildings, with nothing ornamental except, as the governor said, “a short, ungraceful, and inexpensive tower” over the entrance… which, amusingly, is now the proud centerpiece with its clock keeping time for modern shoppers and moviegoers.
Imagine the sounds from over a century ago: the echo of footsteps down wide corridors, the chatter and comings and goings of caretakers and the daily buzz of those living inside. Very soon, though, the building was overflowing-designed for 400, but squashing in over 500, a bit like trying to fit all your souvenirs into one suitcase. With the opening of a larger hospital at Angoda in 1917, the last patient left by 1926, and this proud box of bricks was ready for its next adventure.
And what an adventure! University students filled these halls with their hopes and hurried footsteps, then the pulse of radio as Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation took over. Imagine the whiff of paper from the Public Administration, journalists dashing through for stories, dusty files piling up in the Auditor General and Government Analyst offices.
Fast forward to 2012-cue the hard hats and dust! Soldiers worked day and night, stripping away layers, peeling back time itself, determined to let the old beauty of the buildings shine again. All the grand architecture was lovingly restored, but now with the sparkle of new shops, welcoming cafes, and Sri Lanka’s first-ever boutique cinema, ‘The Empire Cineplex.’
So next time you’re sipping coffee or catching a film here, smile to yourself-you’re enjoying a moment in a building with more plot twists than your average blockbuster.
