Old Town Hall

This charming and idiosyncratic building, tucked away in the heart of north Colombo’s bustling Pettah market, is regarded as something of a minor architectural masterpiece. Now a museum containing many equally charming and idiosyncratic—not to say bizarre and extraordinary—relics of Colombo’s colonial past, it fell into neglected disuse after the Colombo Municipal Council moved to the present Town Hall fronting Viharamahadevi Park in 1928. For 50 year, the old building—unceremoniously discarded like an old dowager in her dotage—served as a public market until it was reclaimed by the authorities in 1979. Among the museum’s electic exhibits are a steam roller and a steam lorry, Colombo’s first printing press, the first mobile library vehicle and one of the city’s first garbage trucks. Not to be missed.