Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The house, although following the traditional courtyard design, is unusual in that it
has two storeys, rather than one. Construction is of teak timbers assembled by wedge con-
nections, with the external walls and the entire first floor made of brick. Female members
of the family lived in one wing, and male members in the other. The family stored rice,
fruit, and their money in the house, the latter being mainly gold bars kept in metal safes,
so heavy that over the years the floor sank under them. The presence of so much gold
attracted the attention of thieves, who applied some ingenious ways of breaking into the
gold room, in one successful heist tunnelling upwards and using vinegar to eat away the
seashells and sugarcane that formed the binder for the walls. The house has passed down
through female descendants of the family and is occasionally open to visitors. Another
way to get in is to join the diving school operated by one son, who has built a swimming
pool in the courtyard for training purposes. The house has also provided a backdrop for
several Chinese-themed films and television dramas.
Following Soi Wanit 2 will soon lead into an attractive paved area, with foodstalls and
shade trees, and to one side is a European-style archway that is the entrance to the first
local commercial bank in Thailand. Two foreign banks opened late in the nineteenth cen-
tury: Hongkong & Shanghai Bank was the first, in 1888, occupying a house that stands
where the Royal Orchid Sheraton now stands, and printing Siam's first banknotes; while
the Chartered Bank, the forerunner of Standard Chartered Bank, opened in 1894 next
to The Oriental hotel. Prince Mahisara Ratchaharuthai, a brother of Rama
V
, realised it
would be difficult for Siam to develop its economy without the firm foundation of a na-
tional banking system, and in 1904 he founded as an experiment a bank that he, rather
oddly, named the Book Club. Located in a shophouse on Ban Moh Road, its articles of
formation speciied it would carry a selection of topics to read on the premises or to
borrow. Nonetheless, the Book Club was a working bank, with manager Phra Sanpakarn
Hirunyakij overseeing a staff of eighteen Siamese and four Chinese compradors. Cash de-
posits enjoyed an interest of 7.5 percent per annum, and the volume of deposits quickly
allowed the Club to extend loans. The following year, with healthy cash flows, the prince
decided to introduce cheque withdrawal services.
In 1905 the Club opened a foreign trade and exchange department, headed by a Ger-
man banker. It was time for the Book Club to declare that it was no longer a library. Siam
Commercial Bank Company was inaugurated in 1906 under royal charter, which allowed
it to use the king's crest. It was time too to move out of the cramped Ban Moh shophouse,
and Italian architect Annibale Rigotti was commissioned to design a building on the ri-
verbank at Talat Noi.
