QUAINT – HOARY – OLD STREET NAMES OF GALLE
Hemantha Situge*
The Harbour of Galle was the main port of call. The City of the Town of Galle was promulgated as a Municipality by virtue of a appeared in the Ceylon Government Gazatte No.3571 published on the 24th day of November 1866 under the hand of His Excellency Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, Kt. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Ceylon :- “That from and after the First day of January, 1867, the town of Galle, shall, and the same is hereby created a Municipality”.
The motto of the Galle Municipal Council is in Latin: Ad Meliora Tendimus MOVEFOWARD THROUGH GOOD GOVERNANCE. All roads within the Galle Municipal Council limits belongs to the Galle Municipal Council. Galle is not bereft of quaint hoary street names that lingers many a “Dutch Name” or a “City Father” Colonial – or Local or otherwise.
The Galle Fort - the World Heritage site was declared by the ICOMAS of the UNESCO in 1988. The instances that could be gleaned from the Fort: Leyn Baan (Rope walk) street, Leyn Baan Cross (Rope walk ) street Hospital Street, Church Street (Kerk Straat) or Church Cross street (Kerkward Straat) and the Middle Street (Middel Straat) other is the Small and Great Modera Baay (Small Moder Baai Straat).
The other streets of Fort that were changed in the recent times were :
(a) Customs Road - Baladaksha Mawatha.
(b) 
Great Modera Baay Road - Sri Sudarmalaya Mawatha
Great Modera Baay Road - Sri Sudarmalaya Mawatha(c) Parawa Street
(d) Chandos Street - Muhandiram F.A
Wickremasinghe Mawatha
*LLB (Sri Lanka) Attorney at Law; former Hon. Treasurer of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka; former Convener of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka; former Hon. Editor of the Colombo Law Society.
The Esplanade Road that contained as a street name board around the Esplanade up to the 1970’s were seldom used. All these streets have buried in the sands of time.
The Circular Road aptly named for its circular shaped road of Magalle off Galle is found in the original boundary limits of the Galle Municipal Council.
Hence, it is named before the year 1866. The Gibbet lane that has road way to the Closenburg is another quaint name that lingers with the Gibbet island - the place of execution - where the Portuguese-Dutch garroting was found to execute the criminals. Havelock Place is alike Havelock Place in Colombo-named after British Governor Sir Arthur Havelock who functioned from 1890 to 1895. In the old deeds this street was known as Elliot Road.
When the Duke of Edinborough visited the City of Galle in the year 1870 the present Dangedara Street was named after him as “Edinborough Street”. Later it was named by the present name Dangedera - literally the house that served merit-worthy food. Some say it is the “Pediris Villa” the house of the national hero in 1915 riots Henry Pediris who died on the 7th of July by the martial law. There is no substantial evidence to support this version of the origin of the Dangedera. Hayley Road is another road named after a Municipal Councillor who functioned from 1894 to 1905 namely Chas. P. Hayley the Founder of Chas. P Hayley’s Company in the Galle Fort who runs a successful business till the present day. This street named was named as E.K Edmund Mawatha a former Municipal Councillor from 1947 to 1962 who was also the Deputy Mayor from 1942 to 1951. Another street of the vestige past is the Steel Road. This road extends via Boa tree junction up to the small Muslim mosque. Steel is neither a former Chairman of the GMC nor a former Government Agent of Galle. Steel has not even functioned as a Municipal Councillor in Galle. Steel’s saga remains a mystery unknown unheard to the Galle’s peaceable citizenry. The present Dangedera junction was known as Miniran Maduwa handiya, the function where the plumbago hut stood of Galle.
There are also seven other colonial street names named after former Government Agents of Galle and former Chairmen of the Galle Municipal Council. They have carved their niche in the annals of the history of Galle.
They are as follows:
| 1. | CRIPPS ROAD (OFF MINUWANGODA Junction GALLE | Named after the Government Agent | GEORGE HINDE CRIPPS (1839 – 1853) |
| 2. | TALBOT LANE I ) TALBOT LANE II ) TALBOT BRIDGE ) TALBOT TOWN ) | Named after the Government Agent | GERALD CHETWYND TALBOT (1853 – 1856) |
| 3. | MORRIS ROAD OFF Main St. Pettigalawatte | Named after the Government Agent | WILLIAM MORRIS (1866 – 1868) |
| 4. | HUMES ROAD OFF Hiribura Road | Also as CHAIRMAN Named after the Government Agent also as Chairman. | WILLIAM WALKER HUMES Also as Chairman GMC - 1883 |
| 5. | ELLIOT ROAD ELLIOT PASSAGE (Off CRIPPS ROAD) Also as Chairman of GMC | Named after the Government Agent also as Chairman of GMC | EDWARD ELLIOT (1886 – 1888) (1891 – 1892) (1887 – 87) (1892 – 93) (1895) |
| 6. | BROWNS ROAD OF HIRIBURA GALLE | Named after the Government Agent as Chairman of G.M.C | JOHN DUNCAN BROWN (1931 -34) |
| 7. | TEMPLERS ROAD OF KALUWELLA leading to The Saint Aloysius College, Kaluwella. | Named after the Government Agent | FRANCIS BULLER TEMPLER (1871 – 1882) |
The name ELLIOT Road; no longer bears that name. It is named after a renowned Principal of the Mahinda College as F. L. Woodward Mawatha. The old Cripps road was separated into two considerable parts. A part has now become the Jiffriya Lane. The Talbot Lane 1 is ear marked to be named as “E.V.G. William Mawatha” who wrote Gaalu Ithihasaya (History of Galle) in 1967 in Sinhalese.
It is said that the elite of Galle was and is, at the Upper and Lower Dickson Road. The Residency of the Government Agent at the Upper Dickson Road was turned into the official residence of the Governor of the Southern Province. The name Dickson apparently is another quaint hoary colonial name. Dickson Road: Was it named after J.F. Dickson the renowned Civil Servant? All this is buried with the whirlgig of time. Will this colonial name boards remain in Galle!! Only Time Would Tell !!!
Another colonial street Ward Street which commences from the junction where the Dickson’s Road begins and ends facing the side of Green Market that was started in 1842 was named after Governor Sir Henry Ward who functioned as the British Governor from 1855 to 1860. It should be borne in mind Governor Ward completed his tenure long before Galle was promulgated as a Municipality. It is very likely therefore WARD STREET existed prior to the year 1867.
Old Richmond Hill Road that commences from the junction of Kaluwella ends at the Jool-gaha Junction (Wood-apple tree junction) was renamed as S.H. Dhanayake Mawatha who functioned as a Councillor in two tenures from 1927 to 29 and 1933 to 1935 E.A. Paules Mawatha was named after E.A. Paules who completed these tenures : 1933 to 1935; 1961 – 62; 1966 to 1967 as the longest served Municipal Councillor. The present Talapitiya cross road was the Yakadaduwa cross road. Also the word Kottadiya handiya at the turn of the Wijayananda Temple at Dangedara are fast diminishing names.
Galle undoubtedly whets the curiosity of any one who studies toponymy –study of place names. Galle with its sleepy hoary quaint names of streets would yearn a change of time but would not remain only with its pristine glory of the past.
