2 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

Just to set the record straight: It was Central Group that bought the land from the Brits and demolished the building so yet another superfluous luxury department store can be built. In this context, it was a THAI COMPANY that had no regard for "the historical and architectural value of the building."

 

The Brits conserved and maintained the building while it was still their property. The Thais didn't. Recalling the award is unwarranted. And the Thai Fine Arts Department FAILED to declare the building as national heritage, thus protecting it. 

 

Of course there's not a single word as to who is actually responsible for the demolition.  

Surely they could have sold it with a proviso. To a hotel group or to Government no it was sold for money with no regard for anything else. What if Bolsonaro sold the dam rainforest to Nestle?

2 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

Of course there's not a single word as to who is actually responsible for the demolition.  

Nor of course, should we consider that whatever monstrosity is built in it's place will probably be designed by a member of the ASA!

 

Personally I think it shouldn't have been sold, it diminished the UK, but once sold it's demolition was nothing to do with the UK government.

Edited August 24, 20196 yr by JAG

The plaque has miraculously disappeared!!

Like many other plaques here....

1 hour ago, natway09 said:

What you need to remember is that the Brits never paid for the land in the first place.

It was bequethed  to them & that makes it a pure case of greed by the Foreign Office of the UK

Personally I think it is shameful

Bequeathed? 

 

My understanding is that the original riverside plot was sold to the Thai government and then the British purchased the PhloenChit land from Nai Lert.

2 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

I propose that all Britons in Thailand club together to pay for a new plaque. 

 

It can go where the embassy once stood with the inscription:

 

"British Embassy woz 'ere. We did <deleted> all for anybody".

 

Rooster

 

 

I want to know wot the deleted word woz????

 

The Association of Siamese Architects (ASA)  giveth and Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) taketh away.

 

Tell the association that the medal is somewhere in the pile of rubble. If they want it, they can go look for it.

The new Buyer did not bother with the culture and history of the building demolition being Thai well known family firm it is part of their fault to have ignored it....so keen to possess the land site to build a new modern Thai huge Mall on it.

So much for the Sun never setting. Flashlights for all.

I wonder where they're holding the tea parties now?

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) has decided to recall the Award for Outstanding Conservation of Architectural Arts from the British Embassy in Bangkok for the demolition of the former embassy building

Are you that retarded?

 

Brits didn't demolish it, they just sold the land. Thais demolished it

It is local councils building control department which is responsible for maintaining historical sites and preventing the demolishing and building new buildings on the site. It is not the responsibility of the owners, sellers or the UK government to oversee what is an internal Thai government decision to take the brown envelope or not.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Quote:-

"the British Embassy building was being demolished without any regard to the historical and architectural value of the building"

 

What a pity - another condo block with shopping mall? If it was from the British Colonial period then instead of demolishing it, renovation could have been considered, as with this former British Colonial building in Rangoon. It was the HQ of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and in its heyday was the second busiest port in the World after New York City. It is now, as you can see, the renovated HQ for the Myanmar Port Authority:-

 

1 hour ago, newnative said:

     Just ridiculous.  If they wanted the buildings preserved it was up to the Thai government to protect them from development.  Don't go crying to Britain now that it's too late.  Hopefully, this has taught you a hard lesson and you'll look around at what else should be preserved and protect it--but likely not.  This will probably just be repeated--wringing of hands after something is demolished.  And, yes, there are ways of developing a historic site while preserving important buildings, working around them, and repurposing them. 

In Chiang Mai the former British Consulate building was retained in the design of a modern hotel (now called Anantara)

https://www.anantara.com/en/chiang-mai This old building adds a lot - is used for restaurant & bar.

 

Perhaps the Bangkok residence was too big or poorly sited to be fit for a new use.

They are too late to get the plaque back. It was sold off at auction today in Ayudhya with with the furniture and other artifacts from the embassy. Perhaps it went to the same collector who got the bronze frisbee that disappeared at dead of night from in front of the old parliament building.

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The ASA has also demanded the return of the award plaque, which was presented in 1984.

Good luck with that, it was probably dumped in the rubbish decades ago.

Again I have to agree with the other posters although I wholeheartedly condemn the sale and the previous sale of land, we demolished nothing except our Standing in the International community. The developer demolished, we just laughed all the way to the bank.

3 hours ago, natway09 said:

What you need to remember is that the Brits never paid for the land in the first place.

It was bequethed  to them & that makes it a pure case of greed by the Foreign Office of the UK

Personally I think it is shameful

When they built the embassy, everyone thought they were mad because it was so far out of town. And it was probably a swamp. Just their good fortune the city expanded so much it eventually ended up fairly central.

Probably on the scrap metal list for meltdown for a new sub

That's the E Gates gone for the Brits too..

Who cares?

2 hours ago, bipper said:

Surely they could have sold it with a proviso. To a hotel group or to Government no it was sold for money with no regard for anything else. What if Bolsonaro sold the dam rainforest to Nestle?

interesting... your suggesting a foreign nation determines what can and cannot be done on property in Thailand, that no longer belongs to them.

 

I doubt that Thailand would agree to allowing the UK to set rules on development in their capital... and even if some kind of proviso was made, I fail to see how the UK would enforce it.

 

and why would nestle buy the amazon rain forest?... that’s hardly an equivalence.

2 hours ago, bipper said:

Surely they could have sold it with a proviso. To a hotel group or to Government no it was sold for money with no regard for anything else. What if Bolsonaro sold the dam rainforest to Nestle?

The onus is  not on the real estate owner or the buyer to establish such a provision, but it's the responsibility of the government or one of its relevant agencies. In the case of the embassy buildings, the Fine Arts Department should've YEARS AGO declared the buildings protected architectural landmarks of historical or cultural importance. Any sales tender put out by the U.K. government would've given the Thai government first right of purchase. If the government decided not to take advantage of first right of purchase, the eventual buyer (in this case the Central Group) would have been bound by the buildings' status as protected landmarks to observe strict limitations as to how they can develop the land. More importantly, the developer would have been required to present a development plan how to preserve the buildings. That plan would've been vetted and approved (or rejected) by the government. For instance, the shopping mall could've been designed in a way that created an ample inner courtyard to at least accommodate the historical embassy building and ambassador's residence.

 

A fine example for this sort of preservation effort can be found near Athens' Syntagma Square, where the developers of a modern office building were required to leave a small Byzantine chapel intact. The architects' solution was to create a large "niche" in one of the office building's corners that not only accommodates the chapel but due to the fact that it is now "recessed" within the structure of the office building itself also protects it from the elements.

 

Yet another great example can be found in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, where the city's oldest building, a chapel dating from late Roman times, sits untouched and protected in a large courtyard belonging to the Grand Hotel. One provision set by the government was that while the land on which the chapel stands is the property of the hotel proprietors, public access to the chapel had to be ensured. And when Sofia's underground system was built a couple of decades ago and the foundations of ancient Roman buildings were discovered at the spot designated for a station, the station was moved to another spot, preserving the foundations, which today are part of a small archaeological park.       

Edited August 24, 20196 yr by Misterwhisper

Damn...the cats out of the bag...I was going to use that on my next TM30.

2 hours ago, AI5AASIA said:

Bequeathed? 

 

My understanding is that the original riverside plot was sold to the Thai government and then the British purchased the PhloenChit land from Nai Lert.

Your information is correct.

4 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

Just to set the record straight: It was Central Group that bought the land from the Brits and demolished the building so yet another superfluous luxury department store can be built. In this context, it was a THAI COMPANY that had no regard for "the historical and architectural value of the building."

 

The Brits conserved and maintained the building while it was still their property. The Thais didn't. Recalling the award is unwarranted. And the Thai Fine Arts Department FAILED to declare the building as national heritage, thus protecting it. 

 

Of course there's not a single word as to who is actually responsible for the demolition.  

And furthermore, weren't the "Association of Siamese Architects" (ASA) - formerly known as the "Association of Siamese Architects League", (ASAL)? 

52 minutes ago, RUGBYPAUL2 said:

Again I have to agree with the other posters although I wholeheartedly condemn the sale and the previous sale of land, we demolished nothing except our Standing in the International community. The developer demolished, we just laughed all the way to the bank.

"we"?

Thai Logic????

Thais passing the buck onto the farang,i would never believe it.

how about we give them the plaque back and they repay the uk the  100s of million pounds we've given them in foreign aid over the decades which would of been split nicely between the corrupt.

i once read some half wit dicks from a uk road safety campaign donated £20,000 to make chalong roundabout safe.all it needed was a used tractor tyre painting white and job done.i wonder how much Thailand gives out in foreign aid each year with the massive booming economy.it probably starts with and ends with a zero.

Thais should learn some important things.

1. Learn to blame the own citizen, not blame always foreigners.

2. Face the truth and learn from your mistakes in your own history.

3. .....

4.......