Enduring symbol

The facade of the main Post Office at Place de la Poste

Whilst I'm talking about the Post Office area, how about some photos of the Post Office itself. Built in at the very end of the 19th century I believe under the supervision of Daniel Fabre, on some old postcards its shown as the Hotel des Postes though I haven't been able to find out if it was a hotel before becoming a Post Office or vice versa. I'm hoping the Heritage Mission can help me on that one. Over the years its been renovated, wings added and much of the original building altered though it's still a great example of colonial architecture in the former administrative center of the city and an enduring symbol. And you can still use it to send your postcards. I get some items sent to me via my company's PO Box number which comes via the post office though I reckon about half of my incoming post goes missing. The area in front of the post office would be a great place for a pedestrian zone and I'm kicking off a campaign to beautify the capital with its first real 'no cars' zone.

The post office seen from the 1st floor of the old Manolis Hotel

The post office in all its glory, including its wings which were added after its original construction

From the top floor of the old Manolis Hotel, a birds-eye view of the post office

The post office clock and facade

The post office has been renovated on a few occasions, the last time in 2004

Future pedestrian zone?

The former Central Police Station, now fallen into sad neglect

Tonight was the presentation of 150 Years of Urban Architecture at the French Cultural Centre and I stupidly thought it might be in English. How wrong was I. It was in Khmer and French, so I had to make do with the photos and maps on the big screen to get the gist of the hour-plus slideshow and talk. That'll teach me for thinking the CCF might've at last got the message that English is the second language of choice these days. The folks from The Heritage Mission, who took me on an architecture tour of the old French quarter a couple of weekends ago, were the presenters. Which reminds me, I still have many photos to post from that tour. So let's start now with a few views of the Central Police Station, which sits alongside the Post Office but these days, it's empty and surrounded by a green corrugated fence and large trees. I recall on my first few visits to Phnom Penh that the station was still functioning, or so it seemed. Today it appears to be waiting for the wrecking crew though it would be nice if the building itself could be saved and utilized. In fact how about making the whole Post Office area a pedestrian only zone and put some real effort into renovating the collection of old colonial buildings that line both sides of the street. It works in many other cities around the world, why can't it work here. Anyway, back to the police station. I'm told it was constructed in its colonial-art deco style in 1925 though an older building stood in its place beforehand. It has three levels and a terrace running alongside its roof. The current owner doesn't like visitors these days, so we had to view it from afar, well the top of the old Manolis Hotel across the street to be precise.

The door is open to the old station house but no one is at home

A ground floor view of the old police station on Streets 13 and 98, next to the post office

A side view of the old police station

The Heritage Mission presentation warned against the loss of colonial architecture like this building that has since disappeared from Norodom Boulevard in the past year

A bygone era

The Treasury building in the early part of the 20th century

I'm on a roll. These old postcard pictures are fascinating and show a Phnom Penh that is rapidly disappearing. In an earlier post I showed photos of the Treasury and the Town Hall buildings as they are today. Above and below are postcards of the same buildings from the early part of the 20th century.

The Town Hall residence in 1908

Finally, below is another view of the Pont de Verneville and the entrance into the Tonle Sap River. This bridge must've been an incredible sight in its heyday before it was demolished in the 1930s.

Gone but not forgotten

The glorious Pont de Verneville, constructed at the turn of the century, but demolished just 30 years later

Unfortunately, the de Verneville Bridge was not part of the tour of the old French quarter of Phnom Penh as it was demolished at the beginning of the 1930s. Why such a glorious structure was not kept for posterity we shall never know, except that it no doubt, stood in the way of progress. The city's grand canal was constructed in 1894 and marked the European (French) quarter of the city. The canal was 3,100 metres long with three different arms; it entered from the Tonle Sap, ran east to west along Quai Verneville (now Street 106) and south to north adjacent to boulevard Monsignor Miche (now Monivong Boulevard), before swinging eastwards again to exit into the Tonle Sap at the end of boulevard Charles Thomson (now France Street 47) at the site of the Pont de Verneville. Built a little later than the canal itself, this enormous structure was also called the Dollars Bridge and housed a mobile footbridge. Today it would've stood at the entrance to the Japanese Friendship Bridge that crosses the river. The only reminder we have today are these images from old postcards, which show some of the unique features of the city that are sadly now long gone.

A 1930 ariel view of the de Verneville Bridge (white) and the Tonle Sap River, just before the bridge was demolished and the canal filled in

More from the tour

The Treasury on St 106 was built in 1885

The Treasury was built at the behest of the Resident Superieur Huyn de Verneville. The Khmer wording says General Department of National Treasury.

The tour of the old French quarter with the Heritage Mission began with our group of 30 interested people collecting together at the clock on Wat Phnom for an introduction. We crossed the road and headed over to the gardens that stand between Streets 106 and 108. As we stood next to the bridge we were told we were standing on the site of the city's grand canal that was constructed in 1894 and which marked the European (French) quarter of the city. The canal was 3,100 metres long with three different arms; we were standing on the southern section called Quai de Verneville (now St 106) and Quai Piquet (St 108), next to the modern reconstruction of the Treasury Bridge (aka the Stone Bridge or Naga Bridge) which connected the European part of town to the Chinese and Cambodian quarters in the south. The original bridge was built in 1892 by the architect Daniel Fabre. The canal was later filled in in the 1930s and the wide boulevard it created became a park. Along Street 106 and facing the park are a number of important buildings remaining from the time of the French administration. The Treasury was built in 1885 by the , whilst the Town Hall was constructed 5 years later. The latter was sold to a private company and now houses commercial offices alongwith some additions from the 1950s. At the corner and facing some of the colonial shophouses on Street 13 and the Place de la Poste is the former Bank of Indochina that still looks resplendent today having been carefully restored and cared for and converted into insurance offices and the exquisite Van's Restaurant. The Bank was constructed in 1893 with additions in 1920. The old bank vaults are now being used as offices. Our tour then continued around the Post Office area.

The former Town Hall, now a commercial enterprise, was constructed in 1890

Though obstructed by trees, this is the former Bank of Indochina, built in 1893 and now housing Van's Restaurant

The facade of the former Bank of Indochina, now office premises and a restaurant

The former Bank of Indochina was later a Cambodian bank and its vaults are used as offices today

Heritage saviours?

One of the delapidated buildings that the Heritage Mission would like to save on St 108

So who are the Heritage Mission? Apart from organizing the tour of the old French quarter a couple of weeks ago, the Heritage Mission are intent on carrying out an inventory, surveys and analysis on the urban and religious heritage of Phnom Penh before its lost forever. In the race to build new structures, many of the old buildings that are the essence of the city's history, are being lost, despite a 1996 law that should protect cultural heritage. Heritage Mission are focused on raising awareness about this issue by highlighting the historical aspects of the buildings as well as implementing emergency conservation measures where possible. Their team is made up of five architects and an archaeologist alongwith a group of willing helpers. It was created in 2005 as a joint venture between the Cambodian Ministry of Culture & Fine Arts and the French Embassy. They will hold a conference on the construction of Phnom Penh at the French Cultural Center on 30 September at 7pm, which is open to all.

Listening to one of the Heritage Mission's speakers during the tour of the old French quarter

Providence provides

The cross on the roof of the chapel of the Sisters of Providence stands above nearby housing

A doorway into the chapel has been converted into a dwelling

How many people have visited the Convent of the Sisters of Providence in Phnom Penh? Hands up please. Oh not so many. However you can put that right at pretty much anytime. It's one of the historical landmark sites that we recently visited on the Heritage Mission tour of the old French quarter a few weekends ago. It effectively marks the boundary of the old French (or European) quarter but if you don't know its there, you'll miss it. Today most of the old convent site is unrecognisable, with the chapel being used by about 18 squatter families, though you can walk inside and look at the gabling on the ceiling, and some of the old decoration especially the floor tiles and the concrete cross that crowns the roof. The convent and chapel were constructed in 1881 by the religious sect, The Sisters of Providence of Portieux and was the only one of six churches in the city to survive the Khmer Rouge period. The Catholic Cathedral of Phnom Penh didn't fare so well. As you might expect, the Providence of Portieux congregation started in France and is now present in Belgium, China, Italy, Switzerland, Taiwan and Vietnam, in addition to Cambodia. The Sisters are still going strong in Cambodia and the nuns run a hostel for poor girls and disabled children in the city.

The facade of the chapel amidst the narrow alleyways that have been built around the former convent

The windows of the chapel of the Sisters of Providence

The original floor tiles are still in place amongst the squatter homes that have been erected

The ceiling of the former chapel with its original decoration

Makeshift brick lodgings now occupy the insides of the chapel

On a mission

The old Police Station, now empty, dates from 1925 on St 13 in the Post Office district

The sun was out this morning as I spent more than 3 hours wandering the former French district of Phnom Penh with a group of like-minded architecture enthusiasts and the folks from The Heritage Mission, bent on giving us the low-down on the plethora of colonial-inspired buildings that still populate the area between Wat Phnom and the riverside. Once surrounded by a canal, the area's buildings take on a number of inspirations from France, the Greeks and the Romans, alongwith the shop houses of the Chinese amongst the apartments and administrative edifices that housed the colonial admin departments. The tour was conducted in French, English and Khmer by half a dozen architects as we walked from Wat Phnom to the Post Office district and then caught a bus to other locations. It was hot work and though it lost a bit in translation, it certainly opened my eyes to the sheer number of interesting buildings in the vicinity that I was previously unaware of. And I'm sure there's a lot more. I'll post some photos in due course, for the time being, here's a few tasters.

The facade and lettering of the former Hotel Manolis in the Post Office area

Inside the apartments now housed within the former Hotel Manolis, built in 1910

A look at the frontage of the Central Post Office, originally constructed in the 1890s

Look before it's gone

The frontage of these shop houses on Street 108 have undergone only minor changes since their 1931 counstruction

I'll be taking my place this Saturday on an architectural tour of the old French district known as Le Quartier de la Poste of Phnom Penh provided by The Heritage Mission - a bilateral project between the Cambodian Ministry of Culture & Fine Arts and the French Embassy - which is part of a month long 'Our City' campaign to raise awareness about the what the city currently has and what it could lose in the face of reckless development. Today the Phnom Penh Post has an article on a row of six row houses at 73-78 on Street 108, built in 1931 in the Neo-Romanesque style favoured around that time. I took these photos of the houses towards the back end of last year. The row houses were popular from the early 1800s as colonialists built cities based on European styling, both in street and building design. These row houses were designed to work together and appear as one large structure, with arched windows, doors and columns all aimed at influencing the eye. As the houses were built around Asia, the new residents often converted the ground floor frontage into a small business and they became known as shop houses. This example of how the French influenced the look and feel of Phnom Penh will be the bread and butter of the tour on Saturday. On the first floor of each of the six houses on Street 108 there are two windows and a door, all arched, leading onto a small balcony. The top of the buildings have a railing bordering the tiled roofs and two of the facades are decorated with scrollwork, monograms and the year of construction, 1931. Examples of this type of building can be found in other major centres such as Kratie, Kompong Cham, Kampot, Siem Reap, Battambang and even sleepy Chhlong.

A tailor's shop now dominates the frontage of this shop house on Street 108