The first thing that changes is the noise. You’ve been dodging tuk-tuks and briefcase-carrying office workers on the Fort pavements, with horns going off like a brass band that never rehearsed, and then you step under an arched entrance and it all drops away. Someone’s cutlery clinks in the distance. A fan turns. The ground under your feet goes from pavement to old stone and I remember actually slowing down, the way you do when you walk into a library.
This is the Dutch Hospital Shopping Precinct, and it sits in the middle of Colombo Fort, just across from the World Trade Centre towers, which makes for a pretty good architectural argument. Glass and steel on one side, thick walls and tiled roofs on the other. The Dutch hospital is considered the oldest building in the Fort area, with the earliest record of it dating to 1681. It was built to look after the officers and staff of the Dutch East India Company, so if you’re keen on the idea that every old building has a story, this one has several before it even gets to the shopping.
After the Dutch era it went through a long run of other jobs. It housed the apothecaries at one point and later served as the Fort police station through the 1980s and into the 1990s, which strikes me as an odd career for a hospital building, though I suppose both involve a lot of corridors and people in a hurry. It was restored and reopened as a shopping and dining precinct in 2011, and the restoration was done with enough care that the old bones are still the main attraction.
There’s a nice footnote to the history. Paintings of the hospital’s front and rear views were done in 1771 by a Dutch artist, and they’ve survived, so you can compare the elevations with what you’re standing in. I find that oddly moving. A colonial hospital was important enough to be painted, and the painting outlived the empire that ordered it.
The layout is easy to read once you’re inside. Five wings frame two large rectangular courtyards, and deep verandahs run around the edges so you can drift from shop to restaurant without feeling like you’ve been funnelled through a mall. Look up at the tiled roofs and down at the old floors. Then look at the walls, because the thickness of them tells you more about the Dutch approach to building in a hot, humid port town than any information board could.
I’d come for the wandering, but I stayed for the shops. There are handicraft outlets with batik, carved wood, brass and ceramics, and clothing and jewellery boutiques that lean towards the stylish end of local design. Spa Ceylon is the one I always end up in, mostly because the smell of the balms and oils follows you down the corridor and talks you into it. It’s a good place to buy gifts, and also a good place to realise you’ve forgotten exactly who you were buying for.
Then there’s the eating and drinking. When I last visited, the lineup included Ministry of Crab, which is famous for exactly what the name promises, along with a cafe doing pizza, pasta and burgers for people who want something simple, and a couple of bars where the Taphouse is probably the best known. Menus and tenants do change over the years, so check what’s open before you commit to a plan. My own favourite way to use the place is to find a table outside at the end of the afternoon, when the courtyard light turns warm and the sea breeze starts to find its way in from the west.
If you want a bit of culture with your lunch, keep an eye out for anything happening in the courtyards. Art exhibitions, small performances and the occasional street musician turn up now and then, and they make the place feel like somewhere people actually use instead of a preserved set piece. It’s never been properly crowded when I’ve been, which is a rare gift in the middle of Colombo.
A few practical notes from my own visits. Go in the late afternoon if you can, because the heat has eased and the courtyards are at their best. Wear shoes you don’t mind walking in, as the stone floors are uneven in places. Give yourself a couple of hours without a rigid plan, because the pleasure of the place is wandering into a shop you didn’t mean to enter. And if you’re travelling with someone who’s not into shopping, the courtyards are a fine place to leave them with a cold drink and a book.
Fort itself is worth an extra hour either side. The old lighthouse clock tower, the Cargills and Millers buildings and the streets around Chatham Street all sit within an easy walk, and the harbour is close enough that you can smell it on a still day. Walk to the Galle Face Green afterwards if your feet allow it, and watch the kite sellers and the evening crowds settle in.
For somewhere to stay, you’ve got a couple of good options. The Fort and the Galle Face stretch have large hotels with sea views, which is handy if you want to walk to the precinct and back without a car. If you prefer something quieter, look at the leafy streets of Colombo 7, where boutique guesthouses and small hotels hide behind big trees and tall gates, and it’s only a short ride in. Either way, you’ll be well placed for the rest of the city.
Getting there from Katunayake is a smooth run compared with most journeys in this country. The expressway links the airport to Colombo, so an airport taxi or a pre-arranged driver will take you to the Fort in a reasonable stretch of time, outside the worst of the rush hour. Ride-hailing apps work in the same way and can be easier at the end of a long flight. If you’re travelling light and feeling patient, buses run from the airport area towards Colombo, and you can also combine a bus with a train on the coastal and main lines into Colombo Fort station, which sits within walking distance of the precinct. Whichever you choose, don’t be shy about asking your driver for the Dutch Hospital by name. Everyone knows it.
I left the way I came in, back through the arch, and the noise came rushing back almost as if it had been waiting for me. I stood on the pavement for a moment, a little reluctant, with a bag from Spa Ceylon in one hand. Three centuries and a bit of Colombo had just passed under my feet, and it had been a very nice way to spend an afternoon.
