It was most recently used by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka for state functions until anti-government protestors stormed the compound and occupied it.

In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the house during her royal visit to Ceylon, becoming the first monarch of Ceylon to reside there with her husband, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh and later that year, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke took up residence at Queen's House as the first Ceylonese to be appointed to the post of the Governor-General.

He would reside at Queen's House until 2 March 1962 when he was replaced by William Gopallawa and went into exile following an attempted military coup.

To this effect, in the 1980s and 1990s, the house underwent refurbishments under the direction of one of Sri Lanka's foremost architects Geoffrey Bawa.

Kumaratunga used Temple Trees as her official residence until 1999 when she moved to the President's House and remained there till the end of her term.

[3] Gotabaya Rajapaksa remained at his private residence in Nugegoda; however, he used the President's House to host meetings during the 2022 Sri Lankan protests.

[4] On 9 July, during the 2022 Sri Lankan protests, thousands of protesters stormed and occupied the President's House, Temple Trees (Prime Minister's house), Presidential Secretariat demanding that both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe resign immediately.

By 10 July the President's House had become a centre of attention with large numbers of Sri Lankans visiting the building.

[8] On 14 July, protesters handed the residence back to the government to stop any further damage to the historical building.

[9] Set in about 16,000 square metres (4 acres) of land, the residence gained further attraction when Governor Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon laid out the Gordon Gardens at his own expense in honour of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1887.