Castle Lane, Bambalapitiya

Castle Lane came next where the famous Ms Spillers (nee Ebert) and her ladies tailoring establishment thrived. Her business was a very famous and elite one patronized by all walks of society. She specialized in tailoring wedding dresses, mainly for ostentatious Muslim Weddings in Colombo. Her sister, Clementine, who was a spinster throughout her life, lived with her in the house. Mrs. Sipllers did not have children and left a major share of her property to the Church after her death. Her husband was an Englishman who worked at Millers Ltd, and they had a/c room for their numerous Scottish Terrier dogs.

The vast coterie of young Sinhalese girls who worked for her were managed by a male supervisor and master cutter named Siriwardene. Siriwardene eventually married one of the girls called Hema and lived at the back of the house where they were provided with living quarters. He was killed in a tragic train-bus crash at an unprotected railway crossing on his way back home from an excursion. They have a daughter who inherited part of the Spillers home by way of a will that was left behind by the lady. The house was a large one with lots of garden space at the rear bordering a large section of No. 300. The white and red Jumbo trees that bore fruit abundantly in the garden were relished by all the neighbors around. The portion at the top adjoining Galle Road on the right side of the street was originally occupied by Mrs Spillers’ brother, Ebert, who had a son, Roger, and a daughter, Carol, who married a gentleman from Caterpillar Co. and migrated to Pocatello, Idaho USA. Roger followed in 1962, completed his national service in USAF, served in the UK in the Medical unit. They had a dog named Jock whom the family loved very much. Roger is, currently, a leading Movie Critic in the US.

The property was later blocked off and sold to Dr Peter Fernando whose family lived in the house for several years before selling it to Chandra Senanayake Holdings, an automotive business enterprise managing the Volvo agency.

Dr. Peter Fernando conducted his private medical clinic at the top of Frankfort Place for a long period of time before he passed away. His widow and children migrated to the UK.

Abdul Hameed, who was a leading building contractor by profession, came to live down Castle Lane with his family in latter years. Haseeb, his son followed in his fathers footsteps and continued the building contracts that his late father established successfully.

Stanley Lumanauw lived at #12 Castle Lane right next to Ms Spillers residence. His backyard fence bordered the back garden of No 300 Galle Road. The house was owned by Mrs. Mignnone Jansen nee Ebert (her husband was Harbour Pilot then) who is also the sister of Mrs. Spillers nee Ebert. Stanley’s mother's was a Ms Walles connected to the race horse people who lived at Thimbirigasaya road, while his father Willem is an Indonesian national. After 1963, Stanley and family lived at #29 Charlemont (named after Charlemont Gauder) road Wellawatte till 1971, which was the one before the last house by Marikar Bawa's # 5 Station Road. At #12 lived Stanley’s mum's relative Mona Walles relict of Denzil, founder director of Rowlands Ltd. The Gauder family owned land from Frances road to Charlemont, at Wellawatte, in the early 19 hundreds. Opposite #12 lived Dr. Nalliah.

The neighbours towards the seaside viz # 14 & #16, twin houses, were the quarters of the US. Marine Corp. At #18 lived the Balasubramaniam's. At #20 was "The Castle" occupied by the Shaideen family whose father was a medical practitioner at Wattala (Wattala Dispensary) and who moved in from Forbes road Maradana. The sons are Mohideen, Faizal, Zuhair, Shibly, Shualy. The daughters were, Noor Suhuda (married Faiz), Noor Muwaffika (married Khalid and moved to Canada), Fauzul Haniya (married Mackeen Sherriffdeen of Mary’s Road, Bambalapitiya), Riyaaya (married Rizwi Hafeel), & Mumtaz (married Mubarak).

On the opposite side lived the Shums family. Further down on the left in the one before last house lived Senator Nadesan (brother in law of the Maharajas) and the last house was occupied by a bachelor, Mr. Rankine, a writer.

At the last house on the right live the Muthubalasuriyam (Tamil family), of whom Rajan and Nirmalendran (now ascetic in Himalayas) were brothers. An interesting house down Castle Lane was named “The Rook” where the Vilcassims from Galle used to live. An open garden area provided a small cricket ground for the boys to wield the willow. Faizal Quassim, brother in law of the Shums lived here.

At #22 lived the Amunugama's and at #24 the Somasunderams whose sons Sathikumar, Sivakumar and Skandakumar, presently Managing Director of George Steuarts & Co Ltd, were all Royalists. Sathi becoming very famous as a pace bowler for the Royal College Cricket XI. Sivakumar passed away early in life. Skanda also played cricket for Royal and has since moved to his own home at Frankfort Place in Bambalapitiya. Right at the end of the street bordering the rail tracks was a very popular dancing school patronized by many who wanted to learn the rudiments of swinging their feet on the floor. The school was run by a Burgher family of Dutch origins.

Jiffry Careem and his family also lived down on the left side of this street in a mansion that he built since he moved in from Galle. One of his daughters is married to Faiz Mustapha, PC, and currently Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in London and one of the sons married Farahana Mohideen from Pennedins Avenue. He died on his eldest daughters wedding night soon after the Nikah ceremony.

A summary list of the families who lived down Castle Lane is as follows:-

Right Side of the street: 2 Dr. Peter Fernando 4 & 6 The Spillers Family 8 & 10 Mrs. Jansen (later the Lumanauw’s and even later Mr Chanaka Amarasinghe, Leader of the Liberal Party) 12 & 14 The Nallasekeram's 16 Mr. Theivendran 18 & 20 Dr. Shaideen 22 Mr. Dunbar de Zylva 24 Mr. Latiff / Mr. Weerasinghe 26 Mr. Somasundaram (Sathi, Sivaku & Skanda) 28 Mr. Thambyrajah 30 Mr. Mervyn Casiechetty 32 Mrs. Perera 34 Mr. Muthubalasuriyar 36 Mr. Bandaranayake

Left Side of the street: 3 Perinpanayagam 5 & 7 Hamid 9 Nallainathan 17 Wickremanayake / Nair 25 Thiagarajah 27 Nadarajah 29 Shanmugarajah 31 Ms. Perumal 33 Menon 35 Nadesan 37 Rodriguez

Facing the Galle Road on the seaside, immediately after, was a sprawling old mansion with a large grass filled garden in front, owned and occupied by a Bohra family. The son popular known as Bata was killed by his own worker late one night over some financial dispute I believe. They have their shop called “AMSONS” dealers of sanitary ware etc.Right next to it was a small illegally constructed shack that served as a convenience store that offered small knick-knacks to its passer by customers.Here also lived the Wickremanayke family. of Law fame. Sons Elanga and Rakita were good cricketers. Rakita was Chairman of Air Ceylon,and recently one of the sons, Nimal, was appointed as Crown Counsel in Australia, The first Sri Lankan to achieve this honor,The Wickremanayakes had a large property where cricket matches were played on Saturdays & Sundays.The other family was the Caders. Mr Cader was a strict disciplinarian. He had two extremely beautiful daughters, who had many admirers who were kept in check by son Latiff and another well known toughie.

Next door, and on the corner at the top of Mary’s Road, was an Auction Room run by the Coomaravel family, which later was converted to a fast food restaurant started by Shiraz Thaha, who was married to a Sellamuttu and later divorced. Currently the establishment is successfully managed by her ex husband, Sellamuttu.