Colombo Club

{{Short description|Sri Lankan gentlemen's club}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{EngvarB|date=January 2018}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = The Colombo Club

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| formation = {{start date and age|1871|03|04|df=y}}

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| founding_location = Galle Face Green

| purpose = Traditional Gentlemen's Club

| headquarters =

| location = 25 Galle Face Centre Road
Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

| coords = {{coord|6.9229|79.8461|display=inline}}

| leader_title = Chairman

| leader_name = G. Manik Pereira

| leader_title2 = Vice Chairman

| leader_name2 = Nigel Austen

| leader_title3 = Secretary

| leader_name3 = Kumar Jayasuriya

| leader_title4 = Treasurer

| leader_name4 = Anushya Coomaraswamy

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| website = {{URL|http://colomboclub.lk}}

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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 Colpity Race Course Grandstand.{{cite news|url=http://www.island.lk/2009/05/11/L1.pdf|title=The Saga of the Colombo Club|newspaper=The Island|first=Aisha|last=Edris|date=11 May 2009|accessdate=4 January 2018}} The original resolution stating, "That a club be formed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining reading, billiard, card and refreshment rooms in Colombo for the benefit of the members and generally for the carrying out of all purposes incidental to social clubs of the above description. And that the Club be called The Colombo Club."{{cite book|title=Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon|editor=Wright, Arnold|publisher=Asian Educational Services|date=1907|page=419}}

On 15 July 1871 the club received the official seal approval when the Governor Sir Hercules Robinson agreed to become the club's patron and president.{{cite book|title=The First Hundred Years of the Colombo Club|publisher=The Colombo Club|date=1971|page=13}} The Colombo Club was the most exclusive club in the country, its membership was limited to British and Europeans until Ceylon gained independence in 1948, thereafter membership was extended to Ceylonese.{{cite news|url=http://www.island.lk/2009/05/11/L2.pdf|title=The Saga of the Colombo Club|newspaper=The Island|first=Aisha|last=Edris|date=11 May 2009|accessdate=4 January 2018}} In 1956 the first Ceylonese member, Dr. H. C. P. Gunawardene, was admitted to the Club and until 1958 the office bearers of the club were all European.{{cite news|url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160918/plus/a-wealth-of-historical-information-208549.html|title=A wealth of historical information|first=Sriyan|last=de Silva|newspaper=Sunday Times|date=18 September 2016|accessdate=4 January 2018}} In 1995 membership was extended to include women, with Chloe de Soysa become the first female member.{{cite news|url= http://www.sundaytimes.lk/161009/plus/the-colombo-club-inks-its-glorious-past-211423.html|title=The Colombo Club inks its glorious past|first=Savithri|last=Rodrigo|newspaper=Sunday Times|date=9 October 2016|accessdate=4 January 2018}}

Following Sri Lanka's independence the club house was returned to the government and the club moved to the Grand Oriental Hotel, then to Ceylinco House, then to the Hilton International and after that to the Oberoi Hotel before in 2003 it moved to its present location within the Taj Samudra hotel, which is a member of the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.

The club premises contains a sixty seat dining room, four meeting rooms, a bar, a business centre and a billiards table. The club has 425 members, including 31 life members and has reciprocal arrangements with 52 other similar clubs around the world.