The Arrival of the British

The last Minister here before the Second World War, Sir Owen O'Malley, left in 1941, when Hungary entered the war on the side of the Axis powers. As soon as the Soviet Army had driven the German forces out, and shortly after the signing of the Armistice with Hungary in February 1945, the British Government sent political and military representatives to Hungary. They began their work in Debrecen, the seat of the Provisional Government. In April the British representatives received permission from the Soviet authorities to move to Budapest. The former Legation building had been severely damaged during the siege of Budapest. It was, according to a report to the Foreign Office, "a complete wreck, only three or four rooms on the ground floor being habitable".

The British representatives took temporary accommodation at 57 Stefánia út. Here the Military and Political Mission assumed the status of a Legation at the signing of the Peace Treaty with Hungary on 10 February 1947.

But the British needed more suitable long-term accommodation. It was decided not to try to return to the Táncsics Mihály utca building. Their search for accommodation ended when PHETE offered them the use of the old Hazai Bank offices on Harmincad utca. On 30 June 1947 the British Ministry of Works signed a lease for 15 years, to take effect on 31 December 1947. A new era had begun for Károly Rainer's magnificent building, although he had probably never considered that the building would be anything but the Bank for which it had been designed.

The first Minister to head the new Legation was Alexander Knox Helm. He and his small staff faced all the difficulties of life in post-war Hungary, as the Communists took control. They had to adapt the former bank building (rather larger then they needed) to the purposes of an Embassy, especially to provide secure storage for documents and communications equipment. This involved in particular some alteration of the first floor (above the present mezzanine).

The alterations were designed by István Sárkány, a local architect. But in spite of the effort made to restore the former Bank's architectural fineness, the building was not prepossessing. Sir James Cable, who arrived as first secretary in 1956, recalls it without enthusiasm: "Diplomats learn to expect unusual offices but my first glimpse on 23 October 1956, of the Chancery in Budapest still surprised me. The entrance, by a dilapidated shop, would have been inconspicuously drab if it had not been guarded by two uniformed ÁVO (State Security Department, or Államvédelmi Osztály) sentries armed with submachine guns. Once past these deliberately daunting figures the atmosphere of the entrance lobby, where a British and a Hungarian member of the Legation staff were in attendance, seemed cosier, if scarcely impressive. A lucky visitor might be invited to use the small creaking lift, but many had to embark on flight after flight of the steep, hard, uncarpeted staircase. The ground floor, still cluttered by the counters and partitions of this requisitioned bank, was only occasionally used: for badminton or a film show, or, in December 1958, for my son's third birthday party. The work of the Legation was done on the floors above, which also accommodated a canteen and club-room for the staff as well as an infant school for their children and those of other Western legations. In common with most other Budapest offices at that time the once respectable interior decoration and furnishings had undergone little change but some decay since the thirties. Later British additions were strictly utilitarian: desks, chairs, filing cabinets and safes."

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank many individuals and institutions for their invaluable help in preparing this publication and the accompanying exhibition.

Materials were used from the following sources: Budapest Historical Museum Photographic Archive - Kiscelli Museum - Hungarian National Museum Photographic Archive - Hungarian National Archives - Budapest Collection of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library - Museum of Fine Art- Museum of Trade and Catering - Bank Museum of the National Bank of Hungary Budapest City Council - Bureau of Contemporary History - Susan Laffey, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Personal contributions: Sir John Birch - Sir James Cable - Professor Béla Kádár - Mrs Luca Lindner - László Regéczy-Nagy - Sir Mark Russell - Peter Unwin plus conversations with many others

Full story available at the British Embassy's Homepage