Colonial-Era Heritage in Bangkok
A visual guide from the Bangkok travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Thailand was never colonised, which makes the label awkward and the architecture more interesting: the European-styled buildings along the Chao Phraya were commissioned by Siamese kings and foreign trading houses rather than imposed by an administration. The result is a riverfront of Italianate customs halls, a neoclassical library and art deco offices, most of them within a half-hour walk of each other in Bang Rak. Several are derelict, several have been converted into design centres and hotels, and the best way to read the district is on foot in the hour before sunset.
The Charoen Krung walk
Start at the Grand Postal Building, a monumental 1940s block whose upper floors hold the TCDC design centre and a terrace over the river. From there the walk runs south, soi numbers climbing as you go. Soi 36 leads to the Old Customs House, Italian-designed in the 1880s and long tied up in a hotel conversion, so expect hoardings rather than access. At Soi 40 come the old East Asiatic Company house and Assumption Cathedral, then the Authors' Wing of the Mandarin Oriental, trading since 1876; afternoon tea there is usually worth booking ahead, and dress is smarter than the street outside. The Neilson Hays Library on Surawong, a 1921 rotunda, is the pleasantest interior on the route.
Royal European taste
Away from the river, the Dusit district shows what happened when Rama V came back from Europe. The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall is full Italian Renaissance in Carrara marble, completed around 1915 and often best appreciated from the avenue rather than up close, since opening arrangements change and are worth verifying first. At the Grand Palace, the Chakri Maha Prasat splits the difference, a European body with tiered Thai roofs added at the court's insistence. Hua Lamphong station, a 1916 neo-Renaissance train shed with a glazed arched hall, still stands, though most long-distance services moved to Krung Thep Aphiwat.