Bangkok’s Charoenkrung Road, the city’s oldest, is now its hippest as makeover brings new hotels and bars, galleries and street art

Run-down shophouses on Charoenkrung Road have been turned into art galleries, lifestyle stores and restaurants, making Bangkok’s most historic thoroughfare hip

The new Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok draws visitors to the neighbourhood along the Chao Phraya river that is finding novel ways to leverage its history

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The Chao Phraya river runs alongside Charoenkrung, arguably Bangkok’s hippest neighbourhood, a key feature of which is the new Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River. Photo: Four Seasons

Published: 7:15am, 15 Aug 2022Updated: 10:09am, 18 Aug 2022

Bangkok’s oldest paved road runs through what has become arguably the Thai capital’s hippest neighbourhood, thanks to regeneration efforts that were accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The paving of Charoenkrung Road, along the east bank of the Chao Phraya river, was ordered by King Mongkut (Rama IV) and began in 1861.

For years, the neighbourhood attracted people newly arrived in Bangkok, but many of its homes and stores had become run down by the turn of this century.

In a process that began in earnest in 2016, dilapidated shophouses have been reborn as boho chic lifestyle spaces, cafes and bars, and hotels are bringing tourists into an area that is finding new life by leveraging its well-established, if confusing, history.

“It’s only recently that Charoenkrung is being recognised as a district of historical importance, but there aren’t many clear records so everyone has their own version,” says Shane Suvikapakornkul.

He runs The Kolophon, a library-cum-research centre within Central: The Original Store, one of the new businesses to have set up in the district.