The Colombo Club Building, now known as the Grand Crystal Ballroom at the

Taj Samudra Taj Samudra, trading as TAL Lanka Hotels PLC, is a Hotel rating, five-star luxury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The hotel is a listed company on the Colombo Stock Exchange since 1982 and the majority of the shares are held by Taj Hotels. The hotel ...

Hotel, is one of the oldest buildings in Colombo. Dating back to the

British colonial era British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

it was built in the early 1860s as the

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

for the Colpetty Race Course by Assembly Rooms Company Limited. In 1871 it was leased by the

Colombo Club The Colombo Club is the second oldest gentlemen's club in Sri Lanka. The Colombo Club was established on 4 March 1871 by prominent British colonialists in the island at the Colombo Club building, Colpity Race Course Grandstand. The original re ...

as its club house and underwent much refurbishments. The building boasted one of the finest

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...

s in the country. Following independence of Ceylon the building became home to the Hotel Training School housed the Samudra hotel, which became the Taj Samudra Hotel after it was taken over by the

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited, headquartered in Mumbai, India. Incorporated by Jamsetji Tata in 1902, the company is a part of the Tata Group. The company employed over 20,000 people ...

. The building is currently serves as the ballroom for the hotel.

External links and references

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Colombo