Lord Cromer's Room
I spent a few days in Cairo the other week running a meeting with the Egyptian Government in the British Ambassador's Residence. This desk was used by Lord Kitchener and is now the Ambassador's. I hope the Ambassador didn't mind me sitting in it for a few minutes! It certainly made me want to send expeditions up the Nile to give the Fuzzy-Wuzzies a good thrashing!
This room was where Kitchener planned the reconquest of the Sudan. I had a jolly good breakfast there!
The Residence was completed in 1894 during the time when the first Earl of Cromer was Consul General in Egypt. Lord Cromer had arrived in Cairo as Sir Evelyn Baring in 1883 to become HM Agent, Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General. He moved into the Consulate, a large rambling house in poor condition, on the Rue Maghrabi. By 1885 Baring was looking for a plot of land on which to build more functional offices and accommodation. He first considered surplus land adjacent to The English Church, which was bordered by busy roads. But there was a considerably more attractive plot adjacent to the Nile in what became known as Garden City.
The lobby of the Residence.
The original plot of land covered the area which is now the Residence and garden and used to run down to the Nile until the construction of the Corniche which cut off the house from the river. The plot was purchased in 1890 for a total sum of £2,580 and work began on the Residence, which housed both the offices and living accommodation. Work was completed in 1894.
6 comments:
...thanks for sharing those... I'm especially envious of your being able to sit at Kitchener's desk!
A friend of minehas just retruned from a brief stay in Cairo and I'm hoping he's bought me bag a smaple oft he desert for using on the bases of my Sudan troops!
..and my apologies for the atrocious spelling - just wish the keyboard would type what I'm thinking!
Never thought of that! Next time I go I will have to take a plastic box and pick up some real sand!
EXCELLENT BLOG
You're probably going to hate me for this... but when I was about 4-5 years old, I lived in that residence for a few months. Through some combination of circumstances, the Ambassador was sent back to London at the same time as the ceiling fell in in our own house, and my father (as Charge d'Affaires in the Embassy) was offered the Residence as a temporary alternative. (It was hell... I couldn't have stood it for more than a few decades...)
That is so cool. I'm supposed to go to Cairo again next month but this is looking less and less likely!
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