In May 1991, diplomatic relations with Albania were re-established after a break of over fifty years. Following such a long absence, no one in London was really sure where the former British Embassy had been. Maps of Tirana were studied and documents compared. The Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that the Embassy had been on what was by then the site of the Palace of Congresses. But a Foreign Office official writing just before Christmas in 1991 did not believe that "we are the proud owners of the site of the Palace of Congresses. It was more likely that the site had been where the Stalin monument now stands. Neither sounds exactly promising for a future British Embassy". A manuscript footnote reports: “The latest news from Tirana that Stalin’s monument has been toppled now sounds like some useful site clearance!"

The problem arose in part because, although the United Kingdom had had diplomatic relations with the new independent Albania since 1921, there had been no Embassy in Tirana. Its diplomatic representative the Minister and his Legation resided in Durres along with the rest of the diplomatic community for the first years of the new independent Albanian state.

 

 

The first Minister, Sir Henry Eyres, presented his credentials in January 1922. Eyres was followed in 1928 by Sir Robert Hodgson who served until 1936. His successor, Sir Andrew Ryan, became the last Minister and served until the closure of the Legation following the Italian annexation of the country in April 1939. It was in 1928 that Sir Robert Hodgson first proposed moving the Legation from Durres to Tirana. He argued:

"The present position is no longer tenable. There was doubtless, even in quite recent times, much to be said in favour of remaining in Durazzo in preference to moving to the capital. Considerations of personal comfort and the relative cheapness of living in Durazzo in comparison to Tirana were perfectly legitimate arguments and, on this score, the balance still weighs heavily against the change which I advocate. But Tirana, which was lately nothing but an Albanian village lacking even the semblance of a civilised community, is beginning to bestir itself and to possess the rudiments of a town. A broad boulevard and several wide streets have been driven through it, and electric light is in the process of being installed: an exiguous parliament house and one or two government buildings have sprung up, while a restricted number of modern dwellings have been erected – and occupied, with few exceptions, by my colleagues. Now all of these, except my Italian colleague, who is on the point of going, have migrated and we are about to be left here entirely alone. We do not want to proclaim that living conditions in Tirana, however uninviting they are in fact, may be good enough for other Legations, but are quite intolerable for us."

The Foreign Office was sympathetic. They decided to report the Office of Works that "Albania will remain an independent State (the Italians have no desire to annex it) and that Tirana is becoming more and more from day to day the recognised capital of the country. It would be illogical for the representative of Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) to live in isolation 25 miles from the capital and that as Albania is undoubtedly one of the danger spots in the Balkans it is very important that HMG representative should be at the centre of things."

 

But, financial constraints prevailed and Hodgson was told that there would be no funds available to build a new Legation for five years. He was instead instructed to find a property to lease. This was not easy as there were no suitable houses available. By the end of 1928, a plan to lease a property yet to be built had to be abandoned as the developer was unable to obtain a loan for the project. Meanwhile, the Minister reported to London that Ahmet Bey (Mayor of Tirana) had on several occasions offered a site for the new Legation free of charge and had told him that if he wanted to look for land, he would detail an aide-de-camp to deal with it.

Little progress was made and in May 1932 a frustrated Hodgson wrote to London asking whether the decision made three years earlier to build in Tirana had been put in abeyance. He was told that, for financial reasons, no further action should be taken. Hodgson was understandably not pleased. He wrote back complaining that this represented a backwards step from the decision to move to Tirana and that it prolonged “the occupation of premises which have always been unsuited for their purpose but which will become in the near future quite untenable”. He graphically described the inadequacies of the Residence "without an entrance hall and with a dining-room formed by hanging curtains across a corridor with a lavatory at either end". Municipal developments in Durres were encroaching on both Residence and Chancery. He argued that a chance was being lost to buy a cheap plot in the rapidly-developing Tirana where the best building sites were already being snatched up.

In his memoirs, D.R. Oakley Hill, who went to Albania at the beginning of the 1930s to work with Gen Sir Jocelyn Percy on the organisation of the new Gendarmerie, describes the Legation somewhat more positively than his friend the Minister.  He recalled that the British remained firmly in Durres. "We were chaffed about this splendid isolation, but I sympathised with Sir Robert Hodgson; he had a fine, solid comfortable house, with its bulwark of Venetian wall, and it could not have been matched in the capital."

At the end of his May 1932 dispatch, Hodgson described that a new offer had just arisen which would not incur any capital outlay for HMG.   Fuad Bey Toptani, a wealthy Albanian landowner, had offered to lease a new house which he was building. The building would have required alteration for diplomatic use. At the end of 1932 discussions were started but these appear to have come to nothing.

In September 1936 Sir Andrew Ryan became Minister. Within a year of taking up his post, he too set about having the Legation moved to Tirana. He argued that the need for a move was greater than ever. He complained particularly about the difficult road between Durres and Tirana, where by then all the other diplomatic missions were housed. The twenty five mile journey, on a difficult road, took over an hour. Ryan discussed five possible properties which he had found in Tirana. These included the former royal residence and a property called Saraci’s House. It was the latter which Ryan decided to recommend. He described the building as follows:

"This is an unfinished house belonging to a former Minister of Public Works, in the new quarter of the town, which is divided into comparatively small building sites. The quarter is one against which Sir R. Hodgson had a strong prejudice. Largely, I believe, because it is low-lying and has the name of being damp. I think the reasons for this prejudice are diminishing, as the quarter is being improved and experience had been gained before Mr Saraci started building three or four years ago in making foundations watertight. The house stands on a plot measuring 42 X 36 metres. It is well built according to local standards, and, though the brickwork does not look very competently laid, it has stood (sic) the elements since it was put up. The house is rather too large for the site but it is unusually well designed for an Albanian built house."

Ryan recommended purchasing this property and a vacant plot immediately behind it, known as the Dibra site, which would provide space for a tennis court and a Chancery building with staff living quarters. This proposal provoked a lengthy exchange between London and Durres, as the Office of Works believed that a Chancery annex should be built on to the house, thus saving space. The Office of Works agreed in principle with the scheme and undertook to put it to the Treasury, provided that the Foreign Office was reasonably certain that the Legation in Tirana would be permanent.

In August 1938, Ryan wrote to the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax, that, after eight months of correspondence with the Office of Works, the purchase of sites for the new British Legation in Tirana had been completed. Three plots had been acquired, in order to comply with a town-planning scheme for "New Tirana" which imposed various space requirements. New legislation had also been enacted to allow foreign legations to buy undeveloped land. The L-shaped plot measured just over one acre and its main frontage was about 80 yards from the central King Zog Boulevard. It cost £6,095. Ryan concluded his letter:

"It may be of some interest to record that the first social function in the new Legation took place an hour after the transfer, when my staff and I entertained there the former owners and other persons, most of whom had been concerned in the matter in one way or another. The party included two members of the Cabinet, the President of Parliament, the King’s Secretary General and the doyen of the diplomatic corps."