About 5km south of Fort and 2km inland, Cinnamon Gardens is Colombo’s ritziest address. A century ago it was covered in cinnamon plantations. Today it contains elegant tree-lined streets and the posh mansions of the wealthy and powerful, as well as the city’s biggest park, several sports grounds and a cluster of museums and galleries.
The centre piece of Cinnamon Gardens is the 50-acre University of Colombo (also called the University of Ceylon) campus, which originally opened as the Ceylon Medical School in 1870.