Nang Loengนางเลิ้ง

Nang Loeng opened in 1899 as Bangkok's first purpose-built land market — until then serious commerce happened on water. Rama V opened it in person; the wooden shophouses around the market yard are among the last of their kind in the city, and the register protects the whole ensemble (ตลาดและตึกแถวบริเวณถนนนางเลิ้ง) as one monument.

This was the entertainment quarter of early Ratanakosin modernity: dance troupes, likay theatre and, from 1918, the Chalermthani — a wooden cinema that ran films for seventy-five years before closing in 1993 and now stands restored inside the market block, one of the last wooden picture-houses in Southeast Asia. The lanes around it still house theatrical families; Baan Nara Sin, the costume house that dresses classical dance productions across the country, works a few doors from the market.

Come hungry. The market's food row — kanom Thai, stewed pork leg, the famous Nang Loeng curry shops — is the least changed eating street in central Bangkok, and the vendors' families mostly predate the register itself.