In the 1890s, Siamese King Rama V (1853-1910), also known as King Chulalongkorn, bought Hurricane House (located at the present Draycott Drive area) and the surrounding land. The king then used Hurricane House as his residence during his visits to Singapore. This marked the beginning of a significant diplomatic presence at Orchard Road.
Although Hurricane House was sold towards the end of King Chulalongkorn’s reign, the Siamese government once again purchased a plot at Orchard Road in 1897 where it built the Thai consulate (now the Royal Thai Embassy) in 1960. The old embassy building was later rebuilt as a new diplomatic complex that reopened in 2017.
