Cargills Main Store

Local retail giant Cargills once had its main store on York St. The now mostly empty ornate 1906 red building still shows its faded elegance in its long arcades with old store signage such as the one noting ‘toilet requisites’. Ground-floor colonnades like those here were once a feature across colonial Colombo, allowing people to get around sheltered from monsoon deluges. There's a tiny modern Cargills convenience store inside with tables where you can pause for a cool drink.