Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
halving the journey time. The earth dug out to form the canal was heaped alongside and
was the first instance in Bangkok where a walkway was built alongside a canal. When
the Silom canal was cut between the new waterway and the river in 1858, it followed the
same pattern. With the building of Charoen Krung, and the southeastward spread of the
city, the demand for roads and development land grew. These two thoroughfares were up-
graded, earth being dug from the sides of the road to raise the surface, which was then
covered with a layer of rocks and brick. The road alongside Hua Lampong became Rama
IV
Road. Luang Sathorn Racha Yuk was the first person to privately fund the construc-
tion of a canal and road across his property when he built Sathorn Road in about 1890.
He made a profit by selling of plots of land on either side of the canal to private own-
ers, and built himself an ornate mansion that is one of the few on this sadly despoiled
road that remain. Luang Sathorn did not live to enjoy his success, dying of influenza in
1895 at the young age of 38. The mansion became the Hotel Royal in 1927, and then from
1948 to 1999 housed the embassy of the ussr, and later, Russia. It is now a boutique hotel
and part of the Sathorn Square development. Luang Sathorn's success in selling land to
wealthy investors encouraged Chao Phraya Surawong Wattanasak to construct Surawong
Road a few years later, and four noblemen of the rank of
phraya
to build Siphraya Road
in 1905. (
Si
means “four”. There was a fifth nobleman in the venture but he held the less-
er title of
luang
. He was later elevated to
phraya
, but not before the road was completed:
otherwise it would be called Haphraya!). There was no canal built along Siphraya, because
by this time canal building in Bangkok had come to an end. The noblemen regarded the
road as a commercial venture, running from the customs area and emerging banking dis-
trict through land that was ripe for development.
The mansion of Luang Sathorn, who developed Sathorn Road.
