Mahakan Fort

Lonely Planet review

One of two surviving citadels that defended the old walled city, the area around white-washed Mahakan Fort has recently been converted into a small park overlooking Khlong Ong Ang. The octagonal fort is a picturesque stop en route to Golden Mount, but the story of its conversion is probably more interesting. For more than 13 years the community of 55 simple wooden houses that surrounded the fort fought for its survival against the Bangkok municipal government.

Which wanted to demolished it in order to create a 'tourist' park, the modern term for urban renewal.

The community blocked progress and even proposed the development of another tourist attraction: a lí-keh museum honouring the dance tradition that traces its creation to a school located here in 1897. Some of the homes were demolished, resulting in the park you see today. But behind the fort others remain, and just before we went to print residents, city authorities and tourism authorities were still arguing about the creation (or not) of a 'living museum'.