Riverside District in Bangkok
A visual guide from the Bangkok travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Charoen Krung was Bangkok's first paved road, built in the early 1860s for the carriages of foreign consuls, and it still runs like a spine down the eastern bank with the river on one side and a hundred and sixty years of accumulated commerce on the other. The stretch through Bang Rak has become the city's most interesting slow walk: 1930s trading houses turned into galleries and coffee roasters, a Chinese shophouse quarter at Talat Noi, and a wall of new glass rising across the water at ICONSIAM.
The walk
Start at BTS Saphan Taksin and head north. The Grand Postal Building holds TCDC, the design centre, with a rooftop worth the lift ride, and Warehouse 30 next door converted a row of old riverside warehouses into shops and a café. River City Bangkok deals in art and antiques and runs regular auctions. Further along, the lanes of Talat Noi are packed with engine-parts workshops, murals and the So Heng Tai courtyard mansion, while the 1880s Old Customs House waits behind hoardings for a long-planned restoration. Soi Nana and Chinatown continue directly north, which turns an afternoon walk into an evening.
Eating, drinking and crossing over
Bang Rak eats well and cheaply. Prachak's roast duck has been on Charoen Krung since 1909, and the lanes off the western end of Silom hide old pork-leg and curry shops that open early and sell out. At the other end of the scale, fine-dining rooms along Charoen Krung and around Silom sit within a few blocks. Bars here run small and dimly lit, including rum and cocktail rooms in the sois, alongside newer rooftops on the hotel towers. To cross the river, take the BTS to Krung Thonburi and change to the Gold Line for Charoen Nakhon and ICONSIAM, or use the free shuttle boats from Sathorn pier.