From ‘De Brandery’ to ‘Temple Trees’

Saturday, 24 January 2015 02:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Temple Trees is back in the Prime Minister’s ‘territory’. Once the official residence of the Prime Minister, due to LTTE terrorist activity, it was a high security area during the past few years with the President residing there. Even after the war ended in 2009 it remained so. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken over Temple Trees, not as his official residence but as his office. The history of Temple Trees goes back to the days when the Dutch administered the maritime areas of Ceylon in the 17th century. Records mention three villas to the south of St. Andrew’s Church facing the sea in the Kollupitiya area. The Beira Lake was behind these. One of these villas was known as ‘De Brandery’, which meant the ‘Distillery’. Why that name was used is not quite clear, one theory is that the owner would have had an excellent cellar. Another is that the building had once been used to make spirits. The Dutch has been credited with the fact that they were the first to manufacture spirits from molasses in the country.

Records also indicate that the extent of land at Temple Trees was a little over six acres. After 1805, the owner of De Brandery Frederick Baron Mylius had been a Judge in the Ceylon Civil Service under the British administration. The names of John Walbeoff of the British Civil Service, who headed the Cinnamon Department of Ceylon, George Winter, a wealthy merchant, have been owners of Temple Trees after 1830. In 1840, the Government Agent of the Western Province, C.R. Buller had occupied Temple Trees. Incidentally, the road from Bambalapitiya to Borella was named Buller’s Road – presently Bauddhaloka Mawatha – after him. In 1848, Dr, Christopher Elliot, the Principal Medical Officer of Ceylon, who also owned and edited the ‘Ceylon Observer,’ had bought Temple Trees. When it was bought by John Philip Green in 1856, he had named it Temple Trees because of two twisted old temple trees growing in the garden. The tradition of temple trees continued to this day when lot of ‘araliya’ trees can be seen. The original two trees are believed to be there still. Following a decision by the Government to buy houses for senior officials (they were all Englishmen), ‘Temple Trees’ was also bought by the

Government in November 1903. Hugh Clifford (1907-13) was the first Governor to occupy it. With the Governor being allocated a separate residence, it was given to the Chief Secretary, one of the key top Government officials. Sir Chales Collins was the first occupant. After gaining Independence in February 1948, Temple Trees became the Prime Minister’s residence. His office was at the then Senate Square where the External Affairs Ministry is presently housed. The first Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. D.S. Senananayake moved from ‘Woodlands’ in Borella to Temple Trees. My first visit to Temple Trees was during the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike regime when he hosted an evening party for a foreign dignitary. I was then attached to the Dinamina news desk. The year SWRD came to power in 1956, the Buddha Jayanthi Year, foreign Heads of State used to visit Ceylon regularly. SWRD did not occupy Temple Trees and preferred to stay in his private residence at Rosmead Place and used Temple Trees for official functions. The weekly Monday morning ‘kiribath’ press conference was also held at his residence, which I used to attend regularly. An unforgettable occasion was when Daily News News Editor Gerald Delilkhan and I went to interview W. Dahanayake who had just taken over as Prime Minister following the assassination of SWRD. If I remember right, it was a Sunday morning. As we sat down with the Prime Minister for a discussion, a BBC reporter turned up with a cine cameraman (those were pre-television days) to interview him. He immediately got up and said, “Well gentlemen, let’s walk up and down in the lawn, you can ask me questions, the cameraman can record. It will be much more interesting than talking while being seated.” We did. Our own still photographer captured us on camera and I treasure that picture. (Our newspapers carried another picture without us following the D.R. Wijewardene tradition of not publishing pictures of staff members). After the Executive Presidency was established, some Presidents preferred to use Temple Trees as the official residence using President’s House (earlier Queen’s House where the British Governors resided) only for official functions. As a result, the Prime Minister had to use another bungalow as his official residence. The practice continued during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. New Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had decided to use Temple Trees not as his residence but as his office.