Toast to an elegant transformation!
View(s):In his search for unusual hotels to review for a new guidebook, Royston Ellis finds a secret– a colonial styled fashionable retreat that was once a tavern in the centre of Kandy
In King’s Street, Kandy, there is a building people used to pass by without noticing it. With a high pitched, tiled roof and swing doors, it was originally a grand mansion that deteriorated over decades into a rundown tavern. Then two years ago it was enthusiastically transformed into an elegant hotel that reflects a traditional tropical atmosphere reminiscent of the best of historical Sri Lanka.
A place to gather and relax: The courtyard and below right, the restaurant
It’s called the Royal Hotel and is blessed with a past that reflects the many ages of Kandy. The earliest recorded date for the hotel is when it received a liquor licence in 1860. Before then it was known as one of the five most important buildings in Kandy because of its location near the King’s residence. With the arrival of the British it was taken over as an officers’ club.
A photograph of the Royal Hotel in 1918 shows nearly 50 staff standing in front of the building. Today the façade seems the same but inside there has been a masterful transformation of a rundown property into a hotel that’s a credit to the new owner’s vision of what visitors want. That’s because when he bought the old building for restoration, the old owner’s family didn’t want it turned into yet another bland hotel with a swimming pool and inflated prices, but wanted it to retain the camaraderie of Kandy’s colonial days. That matched the new owner’s own ideas.
A narrow corridor lined with old posters advertising holidays in Ceylon leads directly into a cobbled courtyard. With tables made of barrels, exotic sunshades, and shaded cloisters with stout, white painted columns, this has become an al fresco café favoured by both locals and tourists alike for light snacks and beverages.
Entrance is also through the swinging doors of the street-side verandah coffee shop, floored with traditional black and white tiles and with a grand ebony and mirror display counter. At the other side of the courtyard, an air-conditioned room for parties or seminars lies behind rich, dark red painted heavy wooden doors.
Bed rooms with four-poster beds: Cut away from the hustle and bustle of the city
A narrow wooden staircase leads to the first floor where a restaurant with dishes cooked on demand has been created with a 1930s oriental ambience and a shuttered balcony overlooking King’s Street. Opposite is a room called the Armoury, sometimes used for meetings, where visitors can gaze at a gallery of rare prints and photographs that give the flavour of Kandy in gentler days.
The hotel has five bedrooms spread over the first and second floors. Each one is compact, focused around a large four-poster bed, complete with a plentiful supply of pillows. Each has a bathroom in an individual style, one with a reproduction hip bathtub. There are no televisions in the bedrooms, in keeping with the atmosphere of camaraderie that pervades the hotel, although Wi-Fi connections are available. There are also tea/coffee making facilities in each room.
Although the Royal Hotel is in a convenient and central location in Kandy, none of the city’s hustle and bustle seems to penetrate inside. The bedrooms are peaceful and the service by stewards in black shirts and mustard sarongs is unobtrusive. Perhaps it’s the history of the place that influences guests to behave with decorum, voices kept low as they chatter in the courtyard café.
Without any advertising, the Royal Hotel has been deliberately kept a secret from the mainstream tourist, its reputation being spread by word of mouth instead of promotional hype. An essential part of its charm, apart from the tropical colonial décor of white paint, fans, high wooden ceilings and springy wooden floors, is the mix of clientele.
This is not an exclusive boutique hotel priced beyond the pockets of all but the snobbish affluent, but the owner’s interpretation of the impressive mansion he remembers from his childhood. He recalls as a schoolboy being enchanted with the building whenever he peeped inside.
The owner has deliberately created an informal atmosphere so that guests staying there can enjoy carousing in the coffee shop, relaxing in the shade of the courtyard café or lingering over dinner on the first floor balcony. This creates an authentic, hospitable atmosphere, for both foreigners and Sri Lankans to enjoy staying in this elegant replica from Kandy’s noble past.
(The Royal Hotel, 44 King’s Street, Kandy; tel: 081 2224449; www.royalbarandhotel.com)
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