L&A, Top Property Group release Nuwara Eliya coffee table book

Top Property Group together with L&A Publishing recently released a bravura coffee table book on the iconic Grand Hotel Nuwara Eliya. A project which was conceived during a brief visit to the hotel by Lara De Zoysa and Lasangi Bodaragama was brought to life in the form of this informative and creatively illustrated, collector’s item pictorial coffee table book.

The history of Sri Lanka’s former British hill station of Nuwara Eliya and the story of the Grand Hotel are remarkably entwined and presented to the reader in the most creative format using a gamut of stunning photographs to heighten the senses.

The book is authored by British-born Richard Boyle, resident in Sri Lanka for 30 years, who after a career as a feature and documentary scriptwriter, became a specialist writer on the British colonial era. Previous publications include ‘Knox’s Words’ (2004), concerning the words of Sri Lankan origin introduced to British English by Robert Knox, and ‘Sindbad in Serendib’ (2008), a collection of strange tales about the island.

The research for the book was done by Ismeth Raheem, who graduated from the Royal Danish Academy as an architect and who is also an artist who has specialised in the history of paintings and engravings of the colonial period in Sri Lanka. He has published several exhibition catalogues on the subject besides contributing to The Dictionary of Art (1998).

The Grand Hotel in its original form a governor’s residence called Barnes Hall, built in 1828 was a vital component in the creation of Nuwara Eliya.  From the 1870s, Nuwara Eliya became a centre for horse-racing, trout-fishing, and golfing, and from the beginning of the 20th century a resort for Europeans during the northern winter. Barnes Hall became the Grand Hotel in the early 1880s and with the steady increase in visitors a series of expansions began in the 1890s when another floor was added to the original single-storied structure.

Later a northern wing (now called the Golf Wing) was constructed and then the hotel became the imposing three-story building with its mock-Tudor façade that prevails today.

The captivating photography was executed by Waruna Gomis who trained as an architect and was one of the last assistants of the internationally-acclaimed Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. His specialty is, unsurprisingly, architectural photography.   The publishers responsible for this magnificent book are Top Property Group and  L&A Publishing, together responsible for providing a total solution for publishing pictorial books in Sri Lanka.

“The Top Property Group established in 2007 is a leading real estate agency in Sri Lanka engaging in a spectrum of activities, ranging from the Top Property magazine, to functioning as a real estate agent, to publishing, sales and marketing and interior design,” Top Property Group Director Lara De Zoysa said.

Commenting on the same, L&A Publishing Director Lasangi Bodaragama said: “Unlike other books, pictorial books demand a set of very specialised skills ranging from subject matter to details on interior, art, collectables and more. In order to publish a book on a certain subject, we have to work with the best people in the business and I am proud to say that we have a phenomenal team that put together this coffee table book on the Grand Hotel.”

The printing was executed by Gunaratne Offset, a leader in the printing industry with over 30 years experience in producing some of the best hard cover, periodicals and printed material in the country. “The assistance and efficiency extended to us by Tony and his team was invaluable to the final product being produced” Bodaragama added.

The Grand Hotel is constantly evolving, yet it maintains the ambience of a time when Nuwara Eliya was the chief recreational centre for residents of the British colony persists.

The person or persons who decided to use the adjective ‘grand’ to describe the hotel long ago when it was a single-story building had a vision that would be satisfyingly realised.