Talad Noi

Talad Noi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited quarters of Bangkok, settled by Chinese - particularly Hokkien and Teochew - traders from the eighteenth century, and its character comes from two industries stacked on top of each other. The lanes are lined with scrap metal dealers and automotive workshops, some three generations deep in the same shophouse, with engine blocks and machine parts filling the alleys and spilling onto the pavement. Woven through that are Chinese shrines, the oldest being Chow Sue Kong from around 1804, a Catholic seminary building of 1837 that is the oldest surviving Western-style structure in Bangkok, and a growing quantity of mural work that has drawn photographers since the 2010s. The two uses coexist uneasily: this is a working district where people are trying to run businesses, and the volume of visitors photographing their workshops has become a genuine local irritation.

What you actually see

• The scrapyard lanes - engine parts and machine shops filling the alleys.
• The Chinese shrines - Chow Sue Kong from about 1804 among them.
• The 1837 seminary - the oldest Western-style building left in Bangkok.
• The murals - painted through the lanes since the 2010s.

When to go

November to February. Weekday mornings show the workshops working; Sundays are quieter but the district is half shut. Two to three hours to walk it.

Honest expectations

This is a working industrial quarter, not a photo set - residents and mechanics are trying to work and being photographed constantly. Ask before shooting into workshops or homes. Narrow lanes with vehicles and machinery. Little shade.

Nearby

Yaowarat and Chinatown are north; the river and Song Wat road are west.