Growing up with the sea on three sides

Having spent seven years by the ocean, son of a former custodian of the Mount Lavinia Hotel recounts living in the historic location

When Julia Harrison first met Peter Pilbrow she showed him a picture of herself sitting on a rock in Mount Lavina in Sri Lanka. It dated back to the late 1950s but when Peter saw the picture he recognised it immediately. "That's my rock," he said to her. Now he points it out to us - half submerged in the sea, clearly visible from the lobby of the Mount Lavinia Hotel, which his family bought in 1948 and ran till 1955.

Peter was a young boy then and his memories from the time are hazy. He remembers his hotelier grandfather, H.J. Pilbrow, as a man with great entrepreneurial spirit with a gift for story telling that enthralled his grandchildren. Most of the tales were inspired by his experiences during the Boer War in South Africa, which he had fought in. "He was on his way by boat to Australia and he came and had lunch at the Mount and he thought, 'What a fantastic location for a hotel, with the sea on three sides.' A price was quickly decided and Mr.Pilbrow called his son and asked him to manage it. It took some doing (Peter was in a boarding school at the time) but the whole family moved down to Sri Lanka.

At the time, they were the latest in a long line of custodians who had prized the hotel for its graceful architecture and above all for its gorgeous location. According to the hotel's records, Arthur Ephraums, the owner of several other prestigious hotels including the The Globe Hotel, The Bristol Hotel and the Whitehorse Hotel in Colombo, purchased the Mount Lavinia Hotel in 1927. It was managed by Cargills & Co until 1939, when the hotel was taken over by the military to serve as both hospital and military base when Ceylon was catapulted into World War II with the Japanese launching air attacks on the island. The hotel was sold in 1944 to Ceylon Hotels Corporation Ltd and later in 1948, the year in which Ceylon achieved Independence was when the Pilbrows took over.

Driving down Colombo's streets, Peter has trouble recognising any of them but that's not surprising when the hotel itself has changed beyond recognition. The lobby itself was very different and much additional construction has taken place since Peter last lived here. It was why, when Peter and Julia walked into the hotel this time around, they were thrilled to find a familiar face and one of the hotel's oldest employees Podi Singho waiting to greet them. But other things remain unchanged too - he recognises the view of the ocean he and his brothers played in and the long corridors they would run down, tumbling over each other and kicking up a racket. (The latter was the reason his father chose to move the family out to live in a bungalow outside the hotel.)

In time, Peter was enrolled in the Hill School in Kandy. He enjoyed his years there and says that he was determined to go back and see it if he could. The school grounds which had been taken over by the army proved inaccessible in 1979, when he was last here, but in 2013 he was allowed to walk around. Many of the buildings were exactly as he remembered and in the officer's mess, Julia spotted two pictures in which a young Peter can be seen. Those halcyon days came to end when Peter's father had to move back to London to manage the hotels there. The passing of his grandfather, who had remained behind to run the Mt., had the family thinking of selling. Racial tensions had become visible and that slowed the sale of the hotel, but in 1955 it passed into Mr. P. A. Ediriweera's care.

Though he himself was much more interested in farming, Peter and Julia currently run a small boutique hotel in Grenada where they escape to during the long European winters. Peter's fondness for Sri Lanka remains undimmed though and has been stoked by this recent trip. He's already planning another vacation here - he hopes he'll be able to bring his grandchildren along the next time.