Memory Lane (In my own language)-a22-jpg


Sathon mansion was built in 1888, during the reign of King Rama V (1868 – 1910) for a wealthy Chinese businessman and government official who owned and developed the land around Klong Sathon, and later served as the residence of his son-in-law. In 1910, his son-in-law went bankrupt. The ownership of the mansion fell to the Privy Purse (later to become the Crown Property Bureau) in 1916.

Later, King Rama VI (1910 – 1925) bestowed the mansion to his favorite Chao Phraya Ram Rakhop and later, in the 1920s, it became the site of the Hotel Royal. In 1948, the property was leased to the USSR and it served as the site of the Soviet embassy (later the Russian embassy) until the year 1999.

The building complex received the ASA Architectural Conservation Award in the award of merit for the architecture and community heritage conservation category for the 2020–2021 year. The recent photo of the mansion can be obtained using Google.

The colorized B&W photo courtesy of ‘Page Siam Colorization by Noomrattana’