Nostalgia Sunday – For Sale: Ambassadorial Residence (British)

October 2, 2011 - 11:55 PM by Rachel Neiman

The news that had Israel’s Anglosphere all a-twitter this past week was an ad stating simply that the British government was selling off its current Ambassadorial residence, located in the most prestigious residential site in Ramat Gan. This exit leaves only the Italian, Japanese and a handful of other official residences in what was once Israel’s diplomatic enclave, in the pre-Kfar Shmarhyahu / Herliya Pituach era. And believe you me, there are real estate developers hungrily licking their chops over those precious real estate packages, too.

The British Ambassador’s residence was not designed by a famous Bauhaus-trained architect and is therefore not listed among the websites devoted to historic Israeli architecture. It is not an abandoned ruin and is therefore not profiled in the marvelous Natush website and blog devoted to disappearing architectural gems run by architect Sharon Raz. Like most of the older residences in the neighborhood, despite multiple interior renovations it probably has clunky, temperamental plumbing and unexpected roof leaks in the rainy season. What the home has going for it is, as Globes put it, “a manicured garden in the best British tradition,” on 600 square meters of space.

The residence has housed every British ambassador since Sir Alexander Knox Helm, was dispatched in 1949 as the first ambassador to the Jewish State. Prior to that, according to Haaretz’s Anglo-File, which has a well-researched article about the sale, “Neighborhood resident and retired engineer Eli Zeichner… says that the first home to be built on the property belonged to an American family, the Liebermans, who sold it to a Russian family, the Hirschbergs. Before the British government purchased the property in the 1950s and extensively renovated it, the Hirschbergs operated a bed and breakfast there.”

It’s worth noting that Ramat Gan’s relationship with the British Empire began long before any ambassadors took up residence. Ha’aretz notes that “During World War I, a British artillery division was stationed atop the same hill where the property sits. Twenty years later, with an eye to establishing a leafy new town, the British Regional governor, Robert Edward Harold Crosbie, officiated at the inauguration of a park on that peak in 1937.” (There’s a picture of Crosbie above left and you can read more about the park’s history in a previous Nostalgia Sunday post).

The symbiosis doesn’t end there. According to the Ramat Gan municipal website, “In 1946, having been settled for a quarter century, there city had about 12 thousand inhabitants more than 1,200 houses, and over 560 businesses. While city leaders had good relations with British authorities, who helped expand the community and strengthen the economy, at the same time, Ramat Gan was a center of underground activity. The British called it ‘the incubator of terrorism’”. The entry goes on to describe the 1946 Irgun bombing of British Police headquarters, the arrest of Irgun leader Dov Gruner who was subsequently executed by the British at Acre Prison, and the fact that the same building today houses the Israel Police.

On a lighter note, Israel’s first lawn bowls club, the Ramat Gan Bowling Club, was established in that city and British Ambassador Sir Francis Evans (pictured left) officiated at the opening on September 17, 1953.

Back to the news at hand. The selling price is NIS 36 million (about $9.5 million), and the sale is being handled agents Inter Israel, representatives of Cushman & Wakefield.

YnetNews interviewed Inter-Israel CEO Adrian Blumenthal who pointed out some of the major selling points: “The British ambassador’s home is located in one of the most luxurious places in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area… The topographic height, the central location with easy access to any place in Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv, along with quick and easy access to the Ayalon Freeway and other highways, make this place particularly attractive. Moreover, we are talking about a very quiet and peaceful street, an unusual green lung in the heart of the city…With all of the building’s history and uniqueness, it will undoubtedly spark a great amount of interest on the past of foreign and Israeli buyers and entrepreneurs.”

It’s that last word, “entrepreneurs”, that has the neighbors worried. The British Ambassador’s residence is located in a relatively tony part of Ramat Gan known as “Gan HaKofim” (Monkey Garden) — the origins of which can be read in a previous post — and the locals are not known for keeping silent when something doesn’t suit their fancy. Quite the opposite. As of a week ago, the Gan HaKofim neighborhood council had already fired off a letter to municipal conservation commission member Israel Singer, with a copy to the British Embassy, requesting that the site be designated for conservation.

“The unique architectural structure reflects respectability without ostentation and the traditional English gardens surrounding it are an integral and central part of the fabric of a unique neighborhood.”

“In our opinion, there is justification to declare the area for conservation on the basis of architectural and historical value of the compound and the fact that the English garden includes a large number of mature trees which are protected by law. Moreover, it should be noted that the street is a central component in the history of Ramat Gan and there are other properties on the street that have already been designated for conservation, including the Workers House of Ramat Gan-Givatayim, Fischer House and the Shaul Garden (Monkey Garden) water tower overlooking the Ambassador’s residential compound.”

That last point could well put the kibosh on any future large-scale development. In 2008, Gan HaKofim residents halted plans to build a parking lot in place of their neighborhood park. They led a long struggle to save Ramat Gan’s Machtesh Stadium (ultimately razed in August of this year). Trust me, they won’t go down without a fight.

Meanwhile, plans going forward to move the official residence to a more modern setting with plenty of parking. According to the Jerusalem Post, current Ambassador Matthew Gould — who had mezuzot affixed to the doorposts upon entering the residence — “has his eye on Kfar Shmaryahu, where many of the houses would give him far greater scope for indoor entertaining than he has in the current residence, where the public rooms are somewhat small, and where theater- style, sit-down functions have been rather cramped.”

It was in the garden where most of the entertaining went on, whether hosting expats at the Queen’s Birthday or throwing a Hannuka cocktail party for fashionistas Trinny and Susannah (photos above, courtesy Mati Milstein / British Embassy Tel Aviv). All agree that it was the garden that made the Ramat Gan residence so special and it may be the garden, with its wonderful “mature” trees, that will keep the building and the neighborhood green and intact.