Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the American ambassador, which it remains to this day. Then there was Wittayu Palace,
built for Prince Rangsit in 1925. he prince had studied in Germany, and he was also an
avid collector of Asian and European antiques. When his collection became too large for
his palace at Pomprabsatrupai, the prince had bought land here and commissioned Swiss
architect Charles Berger Lang to design a new palace in a Swiss-German style. The prince
designed the interiors himself, and asked the architect to specify a thick wall so that he
could maintain a constant temperature for his fragile collection. Prince Rangsit died of
a heart attack in this house in 1951, and it passed to his descendants, who maintain the
house and its collection in its original form. Then there was the residence of Dr Alphonse
Poix, a French doctor who was a physician to Rama
V
. A white-painted two-storey struc-
ture with a three-storey tower and beautifully carved gables, the house was built in the
last years of the nineteenth century and in 1948 was purchased by the Dutch government
to be used as a residence for their ambassador.
The coming of the British Embassy to this part of the city had a profound influence
on what was to become known as Wireless Road, because most of the embassies of the
world's leading nations had moved here within twenty or so years. Those that couldn't
find premises in Wireless Road moved into the nearest places they could find, such as Soi
Thonson, Soi Ruam Rudee, and the upper part of Sathorn Road. This in turn led to a large
population of expatriates in this area, and this led to the establishment of Western schools
and kindergartens, of which Ruam Rudee, a quiet thoroughfare whose name translates
roughly as “love lane”, became the epicentre. It also led to the founding of one of the
world's oddest Catholic churches, the Holy Redeemer Church on Soi Ruam Rudee, which
at first glance and even at subsequent close examination looks like a Thai Buddhist temple.
In 1948 the Bishop of Bangkok had asked the Redemptorists to establish a foundation and
parish in Bangkok to serve the growing English-speaking population. Four American Re-
demptorists duly arrived and began searching for a suitable plot of land to build a church.
They rented accommodation not far from the site of the subsequent church, and they es-
tablished a temporary chapel: the chapel appears to have been distinctly makeshift, be-
cause with admirable brio they dubbed it Our Lady of the Garage. They eventually found
a suitable piece of land, tucked into the L-shape of the lane, and a suggestion by Bishop
Fulton J Sheen that the traditional style of architecture be used, was followed. It was an
inspired decision. The church, completed in 1954, holds services in Thai and English, and
plays, as they say, to packed houses. Holy Redeemer also founded two schools, a local par-
ish school for Thai students and an international school, the latter now located outside the
city and one of the most successful and prestigious of Thailand's international schools.
