I was also struck by the realisation that the interwar years were, for the British working classes, a time of opportunity, before the gathering storm clouds of the Second World War became fully apparent. Navy men meeting elephants for the second time – circa 1928 © John Southgate It must have been quite something to experience Colombo when cars were rare and the air was clean, free from the noise and diesel pollution that characterises the city today. Today, Colombo is a frantic, modern motor city, and ox-carts have been relegated to the countryside, if they are seen at all. Covered bullock carts once transported goods right into the heart of the capital, vastly outnumbering the handful of automobiles that plied the streets of the British-era Fort. Other areas of Sri Lankan life have changed beyond recognition. Covered ox carts outside Colombo – circa 1928 © John Southgate The only thing that has conspicuously changed is the addition of some greenery along the facade, and a more modern fleet of motor vehicles lined up out front. Some iconic landmarks from 1928 are still standing today, like the former General Post Office on Janadhipathi Mawatha in Fort, returned to its original 1890s brilliance following a major restoration in 2016. The photographs create a patchy record, taken on moments of shore leave between naval engagements, but they paint an evocative picture of Sri Lanka before foreign travel for the masses became a reality. Ceylon General Post Office, Colombo – circa 1928 © John Southgate On a personal note though, these frozens moments in time just reinforced my belief that I was born in the wrong era, and should rightly have done my travelling in the interwar years, to a backdrop of gypsy jazz beneath whirling ceiling fans, when the world was still fresh and waiting to be discovered. But flicking through my grandad’s cigarette card-sized, black-and-white photographs, I was struck not just by what has changed, but also by what has stayed the same.ĭiscovering this time capsule came at a serendipitous time – I’m poised to start work on a series of articles about Sri Lanka, part of a push to remind people that this spectacular, complex destination is still open for business, and in urgent need of support from international tourists to help the economy rebuild after the terrorist attacks on 21 April 2019. It has been changed dramatically by tourism and runaway modernisation. The self-described Pearl of the Orient has been gripped by civil war and upheaval. Since gaining independence in 1948 and rebranding itself as Sri Lanka in 1972, the island formerly known as Ceylon has seen seismic changes – literally in the case of the deadly tsunami that struck the eastern and southern coastlines in 2004. Only a few days in, amongst the boxes of dusty postcards and family snaps, I found treasure – my grandfather’s naval records from the 1920s and 1930s, including photos from his time in Ceylon. Having moved back to freelance life after a decade of commissioning, I’ve been frantically busy, but I’ve also found a few spare moments to embark on the long-overlooked task of sorting through the piles of stuff that came to me when my grandparents passed away.
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