Good old days of English cottages, back in Nuwara Eliya
It’s more than six decades since Sri Lanka obtained independence from Britain but British ideas, techniques and lifestyles remain the same in certain regions of the island. One example – British styled cottages.
In the heart of the city in Nuwara Eliya elegant little England cottages are planned to be built whereas a few have been completed already. The US$20 million project has a total land of 7.5 acres including 40 proposed cottages of unique architectural models with modern features.
A completed cottage
Managing Director/CEO, Vasantha Jayasuriya of Jaysons Holdings, spearheading the project, speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of a media briefing held at the Royal Colombo Golf Club last Wednesday, said, “Building English cottages in a cold and stress free environment has been a long awaited dream for Jaysons Holdings. The land belonged to the Nuwara Eliya Urban Development Authority and it was purchased by the company in 2007.” Fifteen cottages have been completed with the rest under construction. The grand opening will be held in 2016, added Mr. Jayasuriya.
Vivek Jayasuriya, Business Development Director of Jaysons Group said each cottage has a unique feature and its own style. The value of each cottage varies, starting from Rs. 46 million.
Mr. Jayasuriya told the media that it is the first time in Nuwara Eliya that such a gated complex is being built to English designs. These styles have been taken from different eras, clans and parts of old Britain. Sri Lanka should be proud to say that it produces ‘Ceylon Tea’ and not ‘Sri Lanka Tea’ and preserve the old British features of Ceylon, at least to add value for tourism and other economic benefits, he emphasized.
This development project has created a benchmark for the planners at the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council (NEMC) and the Urban Development Authority (UDA), he stressed.
The cottages are located four km and seven minutes away from the city centre with easy access to hospitals, super markets, hotels and religious places. The facility is also surrounded by a 10 foot high steel fence with high security.
The roads of the complex are paved like an old English village with a nature strip and jogging track. There are also curbs and channels, underground drainage systems and silt traps keeping with Australian infrastructure for the first time in Sri Lanka. The street lighting replicates old English street lamps.
The architectural styles vary from Cotswold, Tudor, Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian, Chip Lap and many more.