Sri Lanka’s Iconic First Shopping Complex

Symbolises booming consumerism of its age

To every generation of islanders, there will be an iconic building that defines the era that they lived in and the values it espoused. In the first blush of gaining its freedom from the British Empire for example, the Independence Memorial Hall along Ceylon’s ‘State Drive’ would no doubt embody proud feelings of self-rule and sovereignty.

That the edifice is constructed along the lines of a magul maduwa (Kandyan audience hall) – with its distinctively shaped roof among other architectural elements redolent of that bygone age – would make it more poignant; the Kingdom of Kandy being the last Lankan bastion to fall to the British, in 1815.

And in other times and places similarly, there’s a certain artifice about construction of any age that reflect the changing winds of time and shifting sands of geopolitical realities – as perhaps best symbolised by the more modern buildings of our own era, Colombo’s Lotus Tower being a standout representation of this reality.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that the first mini-mall to be set up in Sri Lanka after the opening up of its economy is still remembered with a great deal of poignancy as being unique in many ways.

The Liberty Plaza Shopping Complex – generally referred to as the ‘Liberty Plaza’ – still occupies a nostalgic corner in the minds of teens, yuppies and shoppers of that epoch.

And though it may have been superseded in terms of the content, style and lifestyle-related value additions of subsequent shopping complexes, department stores and malls in an increasingly modernised milieu, the Liberty Plaza will epitomise the carefree consumer oriented ethos of the 1980s.

Being a mini-city in its own right (although in retrospect, this was on a small scale), the Liberty Plaza was an emblem of the economic growth and prosperity of the commercial capital that it served.

Located in the affluent suburb of Colpetty, Sri Lanka’s first shopping complex served a cross section of demographics from housewives foraging for upmarket provender in its basement delicatessens to yuppies on the upper floors treading the happy path of retail therapy!

Being a mini-city in its own right … the Liberty Plaza was an emblem of the economic growth and prosperity of the commercial capital that it served