ล้ง 1919

Lhong 1919 is a lhong (ล้ง), a Chinese-Thai port warehouse, built on the siheyuan plan of Chinese courtyard architecture: ranges of buildings enclosing a central open courtyard rather than a single street-facing block. It is dated to 1850 and was built as a port for overseas shipping from British Malaya, mainland China and Hong Kong. The name comes from Huang Chung Lhong (火船廊, “steamer port”), an older name for the site.

The ranges are two storeys of brick masonry with plaster render, with the brick visible where the render has come away. At ground level, masonry piers carry a timber-framed upper floor, leaving a covered walkway beneath. Upstairs, the rooms open onto a timber gallery with a cross-lattice balustrade, reached by external timber staircases. Circulation runs along the outside of each range, facing the courtyard, which is how a warehouse built around a yard could be worked from both floors.

The window openings are small and rectangular, set in moulded plaster surrounds, several with a projecting hood above. Some are fitted with vertical timber bars rather than glazing, a security detail suited to a building that stored cargo. The roofs are pitched and clay-tiled, and an internal gateway has its own small tiled canopy over a timber lintel and door leaves.

The Wanglee family acquired the compound in 1919, and it was renovated from 2016 and opened as a tourist attraction in 2017. It now holds cafés, craft shops and a Thai-Chinese history centre, so some fittings seen today, such as the glazed guard panels along the upper walkway, are modern additions to the historic fabric.