Compounds and Summer Residences
There was generally plenty of land available in the East, and acquiring the use of it was relatively cheap. The Royal Engineers’ Indian experience of cantonments, good for both security and health, helped establish compounds as the preferred way of providing Mission and consular accommodation in difficult places.
The first compound was at Shanghai in 1846, 15 acres (12, 13). Other early compounds included Bangkok in 1857, 7 acre (14, 15), and Tehran in 1868, 16 acres (16, 17, 18). Tokyo compound followed in 1871, 9 acres. The largest compound was at Addis Ababa, in 1896, about 80 acres (19),
Compounds had many advantages, and their value has stood Britain in good stead. But even they could not offer relief from extreme summer heat. The staff of many Missions took to the hills or the coasts for several months each summer. Where such retreats could not be rented, summer residences were built – several on a significant scale.
At Gulhak, in the hills just north of Tehran, a house was built in 1863 (20). After the Second World War, the Minister moved into another house on the Gulhak site (21). Probably the grandest of the summer residences was at Tarabya, on the Bosphorus outside Constantinople (22).
Eventually, and after some major tussles and compromises, air-conditioning wiped out the need for Summer Residences. Several were put to good new use: for example, Ramleh, built in 1909 outside Alexandria as Cairo’s summer residence, conveniently became the Alexandria consulate when its own building was ransacked in 1967 (and remains so).
By 1900, Britain had 8 embassies, all in government-owned or long-leased Mission Houses, and 20 or so legations, about half of them likewise. The other half of the Ministers, and almost all the Agents, consuls-general and other Heads of Post were still leasing their own accommodation.