Demolishing the historic British Embassy to make way for a shopping center

[bkkcanuck8]

3 hours ago, fforest1 said:

The number of malls now in Bangkok is not only unbelievable and downright strange is almost like a disease that is consuming the city......And they just keep building more and more and more...  

If Singapore can keep on constructing new land to build on, Bangkok should be able to do the same with each new building.  There are ways to continue even after Bangkok is below sea level if they don't replenish the land that has sunk - 1/3 of the Netherlands is below sea level - with a dike system to hold back the water.   They just have to have part of the major construction requirement that they build up the land underneath before building on top of it.

[Too young to be old]

On 8/13/2019 at 8:28 AM, sanemax said:

The UK leased Hong Kong from China for 150 years and that lease expired in 1998

The UK only leased the New Territories. The island of Hong Kong, which was a mosquito ridden hang out for pirates, was gifted by the Emperor in perpetuity. Without the New Territories, it would have difficult to maintain the island, so the whole lot was handed back to Beijiing.

[GarryP]

34 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

For a city that is sinking it appears short sighted given this quote from the Asian Correspondant ;  "The latest estimates suggest that Bangkok is now sinking as fast as 2cm per year in parts of the city. In fact, The Global Post reported that by 2100, Bangkok would be fully submerged and unliveable"

That is a mere 81 years to go or possibly less with the predicted increases in sea level rises.

I am already planning to sell my house in Bangkok in the next 5 or so years. If I wait too long and people become more aware of the problem in Bangkok I won't be able to sell it. Not worth hanging on for too long. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, geoffbezoz said:

For a city that is sinking it appears short sighted given this quote from the Asian Correspondant ;  "The latest estimates suggest that Bangkok is now sinking as fast as 2cm per year in parts of the city. In fact, The Global Post reported that by 2100, Bangkok would be fully submerged and unliveable"

That is a mere 81 years to go or possibly less with the predicted increases in sea level rises.

I can fix that and it is really not that expensive, about $100 million per cm to raise Bangkok.

[Dogmatix]

On 8/13/2019 at 5:18 PM, geoffbezoz said:

Don't worry, after Brexit, if it happens, I suspect the whole of the UK ( as it is now, not after unification of Ireland and independence for Scotland and Wales) will become one world heritage site highlighting the final capitulation of what once was the worlds greatest empire.

 

Then there will be an English embassy in a squalid townhouse in Minburi or some other far flung suburb which can organise a street party to celebrate St George's Day and final indepedence from everything and everyone along with total economic collapse.  

[Dogmatix]

5 hours ago, Too young to be old said:

The UK only leased the New Territories. The island of Hong Kong, which was a mosquito ridden hang out for pirates, was gifted by the Emperor in perpetuity. Without the New Territories, it would have difficult to maintain the island, so the whole lot was handed back to Beijiing.

That's correct but under a later treaty the Kowloon Peninsular, excluding the Walled City, was also added to HK Island as British in perpetuity.  It didn't make it any more viable without the NT though.

[elliss]

On 8/13/2019 at 5:11 PM, kevinmartyn said:

Yes! We British know how utterly broke the United Kingdom now is to have sold this British "Asset" in Wireless Road! Shit it was owned by the British people. Really does Bangkok really need another shopping Mall, and high rise condominium. It's so sad the present Thai Government! allowed this catastrophic disarray to happen. It should have preserved and made a world heritage site!

 

      Absolutely ,  it should have been preserved as a shrine .

       Wireless Road , a safe haven for the great white hunters , who civilised thailand ...

 

 

[DaRoadrunner]

33 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

Then there will be an English embassy in a squalid townhouse in Minburi or some other far flung suburb which can organise a street party to celebrate St George's Day and final indepedence from everything and everyone along with total economic collapse.  

Fear not, I hear that the British Embassy is to be moved to a location befitting the current status of our once great Empire..... a broom cupboard under the stairs in the British Club.

[CharlieH]

For the service they provide they only need one of these.........complete with Mickey mouse too !

 

 

[MaxYakov]

Tear down history and put up a shopping center.

[geoffbezoz]

7 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

 

Then there will be an English embassy in a squalid townhouse in Minburi or some other far flung suburb which can organise a street party to celebrate St George's Day and final indepedence from everything and everyone along with total economic collapse.  

It will only be a consulate by then perhaps accurately reflecting its diminishing world status.

[mackayae]

On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 4:25 PM, tifino said:

The Embassy would no doubt have hosted, back at the end of WW2;  'that' British vice regal visit...

 - the one when Thailand got the bad-little-boy spanking for being a part of the Axis, and of the receiving of stolen lands... and the having to give most of it back to the neighbours.

 

It is all on British Pathe, one of their post-ww2 newsreels

 

but anyways, the locals would deep down be happy to be rid of something big, in their face daily, that represented that low era in their history...

 

 

However, they did let them keep the Victory Monument.

[zydeco]

13 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

 

Then there will be an English embassy in a squalid townhouse in Minburi or some other far flung suburb which can organise a street party to celebrate St George's Day and final indepedence from everything and everyone along with total economic collapse.  

Don't worry. I think WeWork operates in Thailand. Co-work space with would-be web designers and freelance ad marketers sounds right to order for the UK in Thailand.

[mackayae]

On the plus side of having all these malls, for example you can walk from the Phloenchit BTS to the Chitlom BTS through Central Embassy and Central Childom without leaving the aircon. The new mall will be connected to this ever increasing artificial world. Another Joni Mitchell prediction.

 

[JamesBlond]

Indonesia still has its nice colonial-style embassy in parkland near Pantip. Seems they have more class than the British.

[tifino]

1 hour ago, mackayae said:

However, they did let them keep the Victory Monument.

Yes... but that was celebrating another event, from a pre-ww2japaneseEra and the British couldn't care less for anyone else's victory over the French...

[ExpatOilWorker]

1 hour ago, mackayae said:

On the plus side of having all these malls, for example you can walk from the Phloenchit BTS to the Chitlom BTS through Central Embassy and Central Childom without leaving the aircon. The new mall will be connected to this ever increasing artificial world. Another Joni Mitchell prediction.

 

You can actually walk all the way from Ploenchit BTS to MBK through different malls and skywalk, however you will have to pay 15 baht to transit through Chitlom BTS station.

[the guest]

Echos how the great fall. UK is a "has-been" country. Should change the name to "little Britain"!

[bert bloggs]

I used to have business in Bangkok and had to deal with the British Embassy all the time ,the only comment i can make is although another shopping centre is not required ,it will be of far more use than the Embassy ever  was .

nice building ,shame about the staff.

[RJRS1301]

4 hours ago, the guest said:

Echos how the great fall. UK is a "has-been" country. Should change the name to "little Britain"!

The only one in the village??

 

[overherebc]

19 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

The only one in the village??

 

????

[sambum]

Whenever anything like this happens, I think of this lady and her song "Big Yellow Taxi":-

 

 

 

"They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot"

 

But in light of the attitude of the Thai Government and in particular, Thai Immigration's stance re  extensions of stay,  "Proof of Income" letters, and now the TM30 fiasco, the destruction of the British Embassy to me has a much more symbolic significance, and to be honest, gives me a real sense of foreboding  - I wonder what is coming next?

[overherebc]

Where do you get an ETD now?

Trendy?

[bowerboy]

I walked along Orchard Road in Singapore today and was stunned at the size of the plot of land and the location of the Thai Embassy...if that land in Bangkok was worth 420M then the Thai Embassy plot in Singapore must be at least double that 820M.

 

Why does Thailand not downsize or sell that? Seems bizarre to me (either was you look at it).

[ivor bigun]

For the service they provide they only need one of these.........complete with Mickey mouse too !
 
 

That is very disrespectful,i am sure a much better service was given by the guy who manned the bike.

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Number 6]

Speaks volumes of the culture really. Could have been a park and museum.

 

Because every Bangkokian needs yet another place to buy coffee and take a dump. International luxury goods money launderers. Perfect.

[OtinPattaya]

T

[Pilotman]

8 minutes ago, OtinPattaya said:

I'm not a big fan of unbridled nationalism, but neither do I believe that pride in country is a sin. It is a sin, make no doubt, in Britain. It's sad. It's deeply sad. When was the last time any of you Brits, who occupy perhaps 80% of this forum, ever expressed pride in country?

I have very little pride in what the UK has become. I have a fascination with our history, rather than a pride in what it achieved. but I despair at what the UK has become under successive governments.   It has very poor infrastructure, that is getting worse by the year,  a dysfunctional political class that is supported by an equally dysfunctional Civil Service, a heath service that treats to the lowest common denominator and is unsustainable financially, a castrated military,  and a largely miserable population. I like having a British Passport for the freedom to travel that it gives me, otherwise, I truly have no feelings of pride or kinship in the UK, just a continuing frustration that things can only get worse.     

[Gandtee]

37 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

I have very little pride in what the UK has become. I have a fascination with our history, rather than a pride in what it achieved. but I despair at what the UK has become under successive governments.   It has very poor infrastructure, that is getting worse by the year,  a dysfunctional political class that is supported by an equally dysfunctional Civil Service, a heath service that treats to the lowest common denominator and is unsustainable financially, a castrated military,  and a largely miserable population. I like having a British Passport for the freedom to travel that it gives me, otherwise, I truly have no feelings of pride or kinship in the UK, just a continuing frustration that things can only get worse.     

So other than that, everything is OK?????

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, Gandtee said:

So other than that, everything is OK?????

Absolutely fine, mainly because I don't have to live there permanently anymore.