Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles

What it is

The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles is a textile museum inside the Grand Palace, occupying the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building just inside the palace's outer court, and it is the quietest, most air-conditioned room on the whole compound. The museum's own history states that in 2003 Queen Sirikit asked permission to use a then-vacant building on the Grand Palace grounds for a new museum of textiles, and that King Bhumibol Adulyadej granted the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building for the purpose. The museum dates that Italianate building to 1870 and to King Rama V, and records that it had previously served as the Ministry of Finance and as the Office of Royal Ceremony. English Wikipedia gives a different date for the same building, 4 June 1873, with the treasury ministry established in 1875; both figures are printed here rather than averaged.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

What's inside

Galleries 3 and 4 currently hold Royal Court Textiles of Siam, which the museum states runs from 30 July 2024 until 30 April 2027. The exhibition was mounted in honour of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's sixth cycle birthday anniversary in 2024, and Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya, chairman of the museum's advisory board, advised on it and conducted research for it. Its centrepieces are the King's coronation outfits from the ceremony of 4 May 2019 and King Bhumibol Adulyadej's white ceremonial cloth worn at his own coronation, shown alongside court textiles named Yia Rabap, Khem Khab, Attalat and Sompak Poom that the museum says have never been displayed before. The conversion of the building also produced visitor reception areas, storage, an education studio, a library, a lecture hall and Thailand's first dedicated textile conservation laboratory, while keeping the original facade and many interior architectural details. A museum store and a coffee bar beside it complete the ground floor.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

How long to spend

Allow seventy-five minutes at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. The galleries are small in floor area but slow to read, because court dress rewards close looking and the labels carry the weaving vocabulary that makes the objects legible. Seventy-five minutes covers the current exhibition across galleries 3 and 4 at that pace, with time for the store and the coffee bar. A visitor arriving at the last admission of 15.30 has one hour before closing, which is enough for the galleries but not for lingering.

Checked 2026-08-25

Season and crowds

The museum opens daily from 09.00 to 16.30, with last admission at 15.30, so the practical planning fact is that 15.30 is a hard door rather than a suggestion. Because the museum sits inside the Grand Palace and admission is included in the Grand Palace entry fee, its quiet hours follow the palace's crowded ones in reverse: the museum is at its emptiest while the tour groups are still working through the palace's open-air courts. Late morning and the last hour before last admission are the two windows in which the galleries are genuinely calm. School and tour groups are admitted by appointment, which the museum arranges through its visitor services.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Tickets

The museum publishes its own admission scale: 150 baht for adults, 80 baht for seniors over 65, 50 baht for students with identification, 50 baht for youth aged 12 to 18, and free entry for children under 12. It also states that admission to the museum is included in the Grand Palace visitor's entry fee, so a visitor who has already bought a Grand Palace ticket does not pay again at this door. The museum adds that some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge, without naming which, so a specific charge should be checked at the desk. No euro equivalent is given here because no exchange rate was sourced on the date these figures were read.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Getting there

The museum is in the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building, The Grand Palace, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200. By boat, the museum names Tha Chang as its stop and lists the Chao Phraya local, express and tourist boats as the services that call there. By bus, it lists routes 1, 2, 9, 15, 25, 30, 32, 33, 39, 43, 44, 47, 53, 64, 80, 82, 91, 201, 203, 501, 503, 508 and 512. By taxi, the museum's advice is to name the destination as the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building, The Grand Palace, rather than the museum, which many drivers will not know by name. On foot the building stands immediately inside the palace's public entrance, so it is reached before the ticketed inner courts rather than after them.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

What to watch out for

The museum publishes a specific list of house rules, and several of them catch visitors out. Photography is not permitted in the galleries at all. Mobile phones must be switched off before entering the galleries, not merely silenced. Food and drink are not permitted anywhere in the museum, and smoking is not permitted anywhere in the museum; the coffee bar near the museum store is where a drink belongs. Oversized strollers, backpacks and umbrellas must be checked rather than carried in, which matters for a visitor arriving mid-way through a Grand Palace day with a full daypack. The museum states that it is accessible to wheelchair users and asks such visitors to speak to the information desk, which is also where user guides are available as available. Last admission is 15.30 against a 16.30 closing. Because the museum lies inside the Grand Palace, the palace's own entry conditions govern getting as far as the museum door, and those should be checked separately before setting out.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Photography

There is no gallery photography at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles: the museum states plainly that photography is not permitted in the galleries, and it asks for phones to be switched off before entering them, so the rule is enforced rather than nominal. Plan accordingly and treat the visit as the one hour of a Bangkok day spent looking rather than shooting. What remains photographable is the outside: the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building keeps its original Italianate facade, and it stands in the Grand Palace's outer court where the light is open and the crowds thin earlier than in the inner courts. Photographers who want a record of the textiles themselves should buy the museum's publications at the store instead.

Checked 2026-08-25 · Source

Where it is

• 1 hour

  3 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Wat Phra Kaew

  • Must see
  • Historic monument
• 45 min

  3 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Chakri Maha Prasat Throne Hall

  • High
  • Historic monument
• 1 hr 30 min

  4 min walk · เขตพระนคร

  Grand Palace

  • Must see · Heritage site
  • Historic monument

External links

• Official site
• View on Wikidata