Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ental, when the Trocadero Hotel opened on the corner of Surawong Road in 1929, a mag-
nificent structure towering four storeys, with European management and a Parisian chef,
and charging the same rates as its august neighbour. Today the hotel is in a sad state ex-
ternally, with cheapo shops all along its ground floor level and its graceful façade encrus-
ted with air-conditioning units, and it describes itself as an economy hotel. At the far end
of the shopping centre, the foot of Sathorn Road, the Bombay Department Store opened
in 1903, a great attraction for the well-heeled residents who were moving into their newly-
built mansions. The Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (tcc), which had been founded
in 1910, later bought the building at a bargain price, and at the beginning of 1930 moved
in and used it as their headquarters. When the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Siam
during World War
II
., they took over and used the building as their command centre. The
tcc moved back in after the war was over, and later built a new tower block to the rear
of the premises. Today, the building, an exceptional example of its type, houses the Blue
Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant.
A modern windmill sculpture signifying the origins of the name of Silom Road.
Silom Road takes its name from windmills built to draw water from the canal to irrig-
ate the market gardens and orchards,
silom
being the word for “windmill” (it's a different
si
to the word for “four”). This is why you see windmill names and signs attached to res-
taurants and shops, and why the big modern steel sculpture was placed at the junction
when Naradhiwas Road was cut in the mid 1990s. Bangrak Market grew up at the foot of
Silom and thrives to this day, inhabiting the little streets around Robinson's department
store and behind State Tower, which looms above the ancient pawnshop on the corner.
A little further on stands a row of crumbling shophouses, and midway along them is the
tiny decaying skeleton of a cinema awning, placed over a narrow alley that leads to the
Prince Theatre. Originally known as the Bangrak Cinema, it is believed to date from 1908,
which would make it one of Asia's oldest picture houses. Jok Prince, near the theatre en-
trance, has been serving the best rice
congee
in this area ever since anyone can remember,
and there are other eating-places that are part of the neighbourhood fabric, such as the
