Bang Khun Phrom palace

What it is

Bang Khun Phrom Palace is the riverside residence built for Prince Paribatra Sukhumbandhu on Samsen Road in Phra Nakhon, and it is opened to visitors by the Bank of Thailand, which has owned the compound since 1945. Two mansions stand on the grounds. Tamnak Yai, the block facing the road, was designed by Mario Tamagno in a neo-Baroque and Rococo manner and completed in 1901 to 1902. Tamnak Somdet, facing the river, was raised around 1913 by Karl Doehring in German Jugendstil for the prince's mother, Queen Sukhumala Marasri. Army units entered the compound during the revolution of 1932 to take the prince, who was about to leave by boat from the pier behind the palace, and his exile followed. The palace is a registered ancient monument and took the ASA Architectural Conservation Award in 1993. Entry is by free guided tour on Saturdays and Sundays, booked in advance; there is no walking in off the street.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

What's inside

Bang Khun Phrom Palace is really two houses of two different European moments standing a short walk apart. Tamnak Yai is the older and heavier of the pair, Tamnak Somdet the lighter, and the pleasure of the visit is watching one architect's taste answer another's across the same lawn. The pier at the back of the compound is where Prince Paribatra intended to escape in 1932, which makes an otherwise ordinary stretch of embankment the most loaded thing on the site. Next door, the Bank of Thailand Learning Center holds what used to be inside the palace itself: the Bank of Thailand Museum stood in the palace until 2017, when its exhibits moved into the Learning Center building. The Learning Center also carries the Phra Chao Vivatchai library, an archive and a gift shop, and its own opening pattern differs from the palace tour, so the two need to be planned as one visit rather than assumed to be the same door.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

How long to spend

Allow one hour for the palace itself. The Bank of Thailand puts each guided session at approximately one hour with forty visitors, and that is the whole of the palace visit, since the compound cannot be wandered independently. Anyone coming out from central Bangkok should budget two and a half to three hours door to door and spend the difference in the Bank of Thailand Learning Center next door, whose museum runs from 09:30 to 16:30 and whose library stays open until 20:00. Arriving thirty minutes before the session start leaves room to find the check-in counter, which is not at the palace gate.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Season and crowds

Bang Khun Phrom Palace opens on Saturdays and Sundays only, with three guided sessions a day at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:00. Each session takes forty visitors. Registration opens seven days ahead through the Bank of Thailand's online booking system, and popular weekends fill, so booking on the day the window opens is the safe approach rather than the cautious one. The palace also closes on the Learning Center's own holidays, and the Learning Center is shut on Mondays and on financial institution holidays, so a public holiday falling on a weekend is worth checking against the Bank of Thailand's page before travelling. The 15:00 session puts the river facade of Tamnak Somdet in late afternoon light.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Tickets

There is no admission fee for Bang Khun Phrom Palace. The Bank of Thailand states that the guided tour carries no charge, but a place must be registered in advance through its online booking system, which opens seven days before the visit date. On the day, check in at the souvenir shop counter on Level 1 of the Bank of Thailand Learning Center. Parking in the Learning Center car park is free for the first four hours when the ticket is validated at the registration point, and after that costs 20 baht an hour for a car and 10 baht an hour for a motorcycle. Group visits are arranged separately by telephone on 02-356-7766 extension 2.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Getting there

The address is 273 Samsen Road, Wat Sam Phraya, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, on the east bank of the Chao Phraya opposite the Bangkok Noi side. The Bank of Thailand lists two ways in: several city bus routes along Samsen Road, and the river, arriving at Tha Thewet pier and walking south. There is no rail station at the door. The important detail is not the route but the destination: the meeting point is the souvenir shop counter on Level 1 of the Bank of Thailand Learning Center, not the palace gate on Samsen Road, so a taxi should be sent to the Learning Center address.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

What to watch out for

The single trap here is turning up. Bang Khun Phrom Palace is not a walk-in museum; the Bank of Thailand admits forty registered visitors per session at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:00 on Saturdays and Sundays and nothing else, and a Monday arrival finds the Learning Center closed as well. Bring the booking confirmation and allow time to find the Level 1 souvenir shop counter, since the check-in point and the palace entrance are different places. This is an operating central bank compound as well as a monument, so the guide sets what may be photographed inside and where the group may go; the Bank of Thailand does not publish those rules in advance, so ask at the start rather than assume. Dress is not stipulated, but a working institution rewards the same restraint a temple would.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Photography

The photograph worth waiting for is the pair of facades, not a detail of either. Tamnak Yai faces the road and takes morning light on its front; Tamnak Somdet faces the river and comes into its own late in the day, which argues for the 15:00 session if the architecture is the reason for coming. Both buildings are pale and heavily modelled, so a bright midday sun flattens the plaster work that gives them their character and an overcast day suits them better than a clear one. Interior photography is at the guide's discretion and should be asked about before the first frame. The riverside terrace and the pier behind the compound give the only wide angle on the site; from the Samsen Road side the trees close in and a long lens is more use than a wide one.

Checked 2026-08-25

Where it is

• 25 min

  2 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Thewawes Palace

  • Must see · Heritage site
  • Historic monument
• 30 min

  4 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Wat Sam Phraya

  • High · Heritage site
  • Place of worship
• 30 min

  6 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Wat Intharawihan

  • Must see · Heritage site
  • Place of worship

External links

• View on Wikidata