Wellawatte, a small town in Colombo, lies immediately south of Bambalapitiya and is classified as zone 6 within the Colombo Municipal region. The town begins at the old Dutch canal just before the Savoy Cinema and and extends all the way south to the same canal that spills into the sea just before the Hospital Road junction where Dehiwela begins. It is bounded on the west by the magnificent waters of the Indian Ocean and extends to Pamankade where Havelock Road, forks and winds one of its ways to meet the Sri Saranankara Road bridge that stretches over the waters of the Dutch canal extending towards Kohuwela-Hospital Road junction on Dutugemunu Street.

The Savoy Cinema, then owned and managed by C V de Silva, was an icon that no one could ever miss. The stature of the building itself combined with the many attractive movies that were shown there could never miss anyone`s attention. Its location right next to the Dutch Canal on the seaside marks the beginning of the town. The de Silva family used to live on one of the many floors of the building and daughter, Malkanthi, was a very popular and active young lady within the neighborhood.

Several business outlets also occupied the ground floor stretch of the building, comprising a pharmacy and even a textile retail shop. The first floor also contained a Chinese Restaurant which was frequented by boozers in the dusky hours of the evening. A small car park that provided a reasonable facility to patrons circled the cinema from the canal end moving towards the rear and overflowing on to Charlemont Road.

The Cinema, has, in recent times been bought over by the Edirisinghe Group owned and managed by EAP Edirisinghe and refurbished with a new and state of the art look and features.

Right opposite to the Savoy is Dhammarama Mawatha which runs alongside the Dutch Canal and veers its way towards Peterson Lane culminating at High Street, now called WA Silva Mawatha. The canal itself was an adventurous place for the kids of that era to splash in, sport for ornamental guppies and spend their leisure hours wallowing in its murky waters that carried oil, waste, and many a spill from far away places.

It is related that all the land bordering Galle Road and the Railway tracks along the beach from The Savoy Cinema at the top of Charlemont Road to the Wellawatte Railway Station was once owned by a Burgher gentleman named Gauder. His children were named Charlemont (son), Alexandra (daughter) and Frances (daughter) after whom the successive streets have been named and stand that way to date. Not much information is available about the Gauder family.

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