Bangkok’s oldest paved road passes through what has arguably become the Thai capital’s most modern domain, thanks to regeneration efforts that have been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The paving of Charoenkrung Road, along the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, was ordered through King Mongkut (Rama IV) and began in 1861.
For years, the community attracted newcomers to Bangkok, but many of its homes and department stores had deteriorated during the turn of the century.
In a process that actually began in 2016, dilapidated shops are being reborn as boho-chic lifestyle spaces, cafes and bars, and hotels are taking tourists into a domain that discovers a new life by tapping into their well-established, if confusing, history.
“Charoenkrung has only recently been identified as a community of ancient importance, but there are not many transparent documents, so it has its own version,” says Shane Suvikapakornkul.
He runs The Kolophon, a research center and library within Central: The Original Store, one of the new businesses that were installed in the neighborhood.
“The story here is as random as the progression and architecture: neighborhoods and spaces that intersect. Nothing is transparent or transparent. “
In addition to the five-story multi-concept Central: The Original Store, attractions have emerged in the past two years, adding the Charoen 43 Art
The 299-room Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok on the Chao Phraya River is leading the renaissance in this stretch of river: the Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok opened its doors as oriental Hotel in 1876.
The hotel opened in December 2020 and is the crown jewel in country Group Developments’ chao Phraya estate, an allocation of 3 billion baht (S$116 million), 5. 75 hectares (14 acres) from Country Group Developments that also includes the 101-room Capella Hotel and the largest Four Seasons Private Residences Assets in the world.
That the Four Seasons logo has chosen this location and that the Country Group has invested five years in a confusing acquisition of the approximately three hundred stakeholders who claimed plots of what had been a fish market, testifies to the prospect of this beachfront domain and Charoenkrung streets for the punctual north.
Central: The Original Store is, among other things, a tribute to Thailand’s largest retail group, Central, which began in 1950 on the same site. Both belong to the Chirathivat family.
The new “store” opened in late 2020 and houses a bookstore, the Siwilai Cafe, the Thai restaurant Aksorn and The Kolophon.
Although the original construction of 1900 was demolished in the 60s, most of the replacement design of the 70s has been preserved and improved through the use of classic terracotta, a return to the façade of the original store.
The display area on the first floor tells the story of Central’s English-language magazines from the 1950s to the 1970s, of which the store was once an importer.
It also celebrates Charoenkrung as Bangkok’s main advertising and residential street. The Siwilai Sound Club, a bar spread over two floors of the building, credits Charoenkrung as the birthplace of jazz bars in Bangkok.
A three-minute walk away is Charoenkrung Soi 32, home of Charoen Art.
Also at Charoen 43 is the Small Dinner Plates restaurant, which offers dishes prepared with Thai ingredients on its menu.
Other landowners who have sought to benefit from Charoenkrung’s gentrification come with the Sae-be family.
Dechar Sae-be has renovated six adjacent trading houses that are between 150 and 200 years old and are a 10-minute walk from Charoenkrung Road. separate them, organization is an Instagrammer’s dream.
Behind this ruined façade hides the fruit of Dechar’s work: the Hong Sieng Kong café. The café opened in April 2021.
A 150-year-old staircase made of gilded Burmese teak is the center of attention.
The coffee menu is modern, but while enjoying fly tea sorbet, Talad Noi coffee (a mix of orange juice, sparkling water, and espresso) and Thai fusion cuisine, the crowd attractions are the interiors with antique furniture and the view of the Chao Phraya River.
Dechar says his father had wanted to turn their homes into a café and gallery, and in the months leading up to his recent death, he thankfully spent hours watching from the newly opened business, strolling through the combination of old and new buildings flanking the river. .
About 3 km downstream, water elements have been installed inside and outside the Four Seasons in homage to the chao Phraya’s prestige as Bangkok’s engine.
These pools and other features reflect the movement of the river, while the upper ceilings and glass walls magnify the space.
The hotel’s bars and restaurants make a nod to the nationalities that have settled in Bangkok in the afterlife and in the present.
Yu Ting Yuan, a Michelin star, serves Cantonese dishes, for example, and Brasserie Palmier offers French classics soft enough to enjoy in the tropics.
In a region that draws attention for its bar scene: the first came here, the TEP bar, which uses classic Thai medicine in its concoctions, then Tropic City, which ranked 17th in this year’s ranking of the 50 bars in Asia: the BKK Social Club of Four Seasons, which came tenth on the same list, attracts crowds.
They come to locate velvet encouraged by art nouveau in Buenos Aires.
Along with the regeneration of its buildings, street art evolved in Charoenkrung.
It is with the staging of the Bukruk Street Art Festival (named after a three-eyed boy dressed in a rabbit dress made known by Thai street artist Alex Face) in 2016.
In 2017, Portuguese artist Vhils commissioned the constitution of the friendship between Thailand and Portugal on the walls of the Portuguese Embassy next to Charoenkrung Road.
There is now also a mural by Alex Face Bukrak near Charoenkrung Soi 32 and a depiction of the Chinese god of fortune by Thai artist Taeogawa, next to a shrine near the Hong Sieng Kong café.
The move of Thailand’s Creative and Design Centre to Charoenkrung in 2017 cemented the region as an arts hub, and the Four Seasons built on that reputation through integration with Bangkok’s Museum of Contemporary Art to showcase Art Space, a component of the hotel, which hosts exhibitions by Thai artists.
Its history may have been random and its progression possibly chaotic, but the first road to Charoenkrung is paved with riches.
This article was first published in the South China Morning Post.
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