(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)
Old House on Sri Ayutthaya Road - April 10, 2004
Bangkok old hands will remember the old house on the northeast corner of Sri Ayutthaya and Phayathai Roads. Further down Phayathai Road, MacKenna Theater is being torn down too.
Tearing down Laksamee Wilas Palace - February 1, 2006
Wisarut reports: After my investigation, I found that
the old house at the corner of Phaythai Intersection is "Laksamee
Wilas Palace" of the former Queen Laksamilawan of King Vajiravut
(July 3, 1899 - August 29, 1961). She was born MomjaoYing Wanphimon
Worawan of Prince Nartadhip Praphanphongse (the founder of the Red
Line Tram and Phraphutthabat Railway).
This palace came from the money from the will of King Vajiravut since
she received only 12,000 baht annual payment from the Royal Household
Office and stayed in the palace at the end of Soi Phrom Phong (Sukhumvit
39 when it had not become a shortcut yet) without servants. Even when
she lived in the new palace, she rarely met with anybody--not even
her own siblings and relatives (the Worawan family).
Laksamee Wilas Palace is also the place where the former Queen Laksamilawan
met the tragic end of her life. She was murdered by her own gardeners
with an axe and a steel crowbar on August 29, 1961. Her secretary
(a junior student at the Accountant and Commence Department, Chulalongkorn
University) discovered the decomposed body of former Queen Laksamilawan
at the garage of Laksamee Wilas Palace on September 3, 1961. She was
cremated at the crematorium at Wat Debsirin on October 1961.
Police speedily arrested two gardeners for the murder. Both of them
admitted that they murdered the former Queen Laksamilawan since they
could not endure the continuing curses of the old lady since she was
so self-centered, so moody and so pushy that nobody wanted to become
her maids, butlers or servants. The gardeners were sentenced to death
by a Military Court since it was a time under Martial Law, but the
sentence was commuted to life and they were pardoned years later.
Today, Laksamee Wilas Palace is becoming history since the new owner
want to demolish it to erase the tragedy from the place. Even today,
nobody care about this old palace and noodle stalls are set up in
front of the derelict palace.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)
It has sat vacant for many years and is now being torn down.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)
The old house from the eighth floor of Siripinyo Building. The Phayathai Skytrain Station in in the background.
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)