Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
During those years when Bangkok was opening to Western trade, most of the
European nations along with the Americans had their consulates along this stretch of
Charoen Krung Road, and the incoming ships would moor alongside their own legations.
Next to the Portuguese Consulate had stood the British Consulate. The first British consul,
Charles Batten Hillier, had been stationed in Bangkok immediately after the ratification of
the Bowring Treaty. The original consulate had been located in rented premises in Bang
Kolaem, but permanent premises were clearly necessary and the king, who had developed
a high regard for Bowring and the British, took it upon himself to acquire the land. A letter
from the king dated 17
th
July 1856 points out that the chosen piece of land neighbouring
the Portuguese Consulate belonged to “many Malayan and Burman people” but that the
king was prepared to offer them one
tical
for every one square fathom. The only problem
was an area that belonged to a minister in the service of Second King Pinklao. Rama
IV
pointed out he had no right to compel ministers to sell their land, and suggested that the
British wrote to the second king direct. Hillier was felled by dysentery and ended up in
the Protestant Cemetery before the year was out, but negotiations were continued by his
successor. Once the land was arranged, the king even advanced a loan of 16,000
ticals
so
that building could begin without waiting for the transfer of funds from the Foreign Office
in London.
The site was a large one, and along with the residence the British added servants' quar-
ters, two courthouses, a house for the consular assistant, an office building, and a grander
residence when the consulate was raised to the status of a legation in 1895. It was all rather
splendid, and the size of the legation being far larger than any other of the embassies re-
flected the scale of British power. Everything began to change, however, when Sir Ral-
ph Paget arrived in 1902 to take charge of the legation. Sir Ralph appears to have been a
man of refined sensibilities. Steamships and launches were passing up and down the river
day and night, honking and hooting. Two rice mills on the opposite bank had klaxons
they continually sounded, and whenever the wind blew from the east the compound was
smothered with paddy-ash. Trams rattled along Charoen Krung, enthusiastically clanging
their bells. The next-door temple rang its bell daily and loudly to call the faithful. Immedi-
ately opposite the legation gates an Italian lady named Madame Staro operated what must
have been a very attractive establishment, with loud piano music and female companion-
ship. Sir Ralph was aghast. The place was just so damned noisy, don'tcha know.
He began to cast around for another site, but the bureaucratic wheels in Bangkok and
London turned slowly, and it wasn't until 1919 that a suitable plot of land was suggested.
Much to the horror of the ambassador of the day, Sir Ralph having long since moved on,
