As a sign of how Pattaya has changed, the historic British consulate has now become just one more amongst the city’s 200 or so ganja sales points. The consulate, situated in Jomtien Soi 5 close to the immigration police bureau, was operational from 2007-2012.
It was opened by the British government in response to the then booming number of Brits, both tourists and expats, in the resort. The office provided confirmation letters of income for immigration, distributed forms on a wide variety of embassy-related matters, including passport renewals, and was the mainspring for crisis management such as arrests and deaths.
The consulate was closed as part of a British government cost-saving exercise on diplomatic posts abroad to centralize services on capital cities and encourage use of the internet rather than frontline services by Brits abroad. Pattaya is still served by a British honorary consul but with a smaller remit. The current holder for 10 years, Bert Elson, is retiring but his successor has not yet been publicly announced.
The old embassy office, which paid an annual rent to the owners, has had a varied history since its closure. It has been a foreign exchange bureau, an office and a coffee point before transferring to the high life earlier this year.
