Pera House: a history beyond tragedy

Fires burned it down and a brutal terrorist attack caused widespread damage as it took the precious lives of inhabitants. Through the centuries, the home of the British Consulate in Istanbul, the Pera House, has become much more than a monument to its tragic past.

From beyond its grounds in the heart of Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district, the Pera House stands out as any 19th century palace would in the middle of a city. Brick walls and steel fences, all with barbed wire on top, frame the building and its four-hectare garden. In one snapshot, this juxtaposition encapsulates the tragedy of Nov. 15, 2003.

On that day, terrorists bombed the compound and killed 16 people, including Consul General Roger Short. No one has taken the time to fully catalogue the history of the Pera House, according to the current Consul General Jessica Hand, but the attack can be marked as a definitive event of its past.

Prior to the bombing, the building was undergoing extensive restoration after a fire in 2000 destroyed much of the building.

“The fire could be seen from miles off. It was huge and as it started from the roof it spread in straight lines, bringing down the ceilings, including those that held up two Waterford crystal chandeliers,” Hand told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Hand explained that the two chandeliers that hang in the grand ballroom today were gifts from Queen Victoria to the tsar. “They were being shipped when the Crimean War broke out, and Ambassador Stratford Canning, who resided at the house at the time, stopped them from being sent because of the war,” Hand said, adding that another of the chandeliers hangs in Dolmabaçe Palace.

The fire of 2000 was not the first in Pera House’s history. The first version of Pera House, built in 1806 and funded and designed by the British ambassador and seventh Earl of Elgin, burned to the ground in a fire in 1839. The design was based on his family home in Scotland. At the time, Pera House was built as an embassy. It became a consulate after the Turkish Republic was established and the embassy moved to Ankara.

According to Bob Hand, Jessica Hand’s husband and a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, the first version of the embassy, which was also known as the British Palace, was unique because it was the first time a sultan had given land to a foreign country for the purpose of an embassy.

The British embassy temporarily re-located to its summer site at Tarabya, but a debate ensued about whether or not to rebuild it and if its location should change. It was not until 1841 when Stratford Canning arrived as ambassador that serious efforts began to move the embassy back to the Pera House.

“Canning was a forceful ambassador at the time. He watched over the completion of the second building, ensuring that what was going to be done would be done right,” Bob Hand told the Daily News.

“He was a stickler for details and had a vision for style and presentation and he was not going to compromise on that. It is largely a tribute to him that we have the building we have today,” Jessica Hand said.

Jessica Hand said there was a lot of competition in architecture, design and materials when the embassy was being constructed, which was at the same time as Dolmabaçe Palace. “It was a huge overrun project that proved to be very expensive,” she said.

Bob Hand said a key difference between the British embassy and others was that it does not have a basement because of its foundations. “At the time, many embassies used their basements as prisons because ambassadors had the right to equitably meet out law to their fellow countrymen. They were allowed to arrest them and ship them out,” Bob Hand said, adding that the British prison was near Galata Tower.

In terms of the Pera House’s history, Jessica Hand said the latest restoration was the most successful. “It has been faithfully and sensitively restored and reflects the architecture and design of the time.”

According to Jessica Hand, the building is at its best when it is full, and it is its human side that makes it so special and interesting. “We live in the house and it is strange on the weekends when there is no one here. It is quiet and it echoes. You get the feeling it comes alive when people walk and talk in the corridors,” Jessica Hand said.

She said old guest books found during the restoration process show the remarkable number of people who have visited the embassy over the years, with highlights including Lord Byron, Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Birthplace of modern diplomacy

The most recent discovery in the embassy’s history has come from research being carried out by a historian who is working on the history of the Beyoğlu district. According to Bob Hand, in the historian’s findings, which are yet to be confirmed, it seems that the embassy might be the birthplace of modern diplomacy.

“In the run-up to the Crimean War, ambassadors had meetings and discussions to find diplomatic solutions because they could not wait for decisions to come from London. If this can be documented it would suggest that this was the beginning of what is modern, western European-style diplomacy, which has become the framework for what happens diplomatically in the world today,” Bob Hand told the Daily News.

Consul General Jessica Hand is currently hoping to put together a book or pamphlet accounting for what is a fascinating and under-accounted history of the embassy.