The Iron Fairies

This is both Bangkok’s most celebrated bar and its most copied. The narrow, decrepit Dickensian factory-themed shophouse popped up on Thonglor at a time when Victorian boudoir was still all the rage, triggering a tidal wave of steel beams and exposed brick that is still going strong, as recent copycat openings such as Apoteka attest.

To this day, Iron Fairies remains unmatched in its wackiness, though, thanks to the creative genius of designer and manager Ashley Sutton. Case in point: he was employing a handful of leather apron-clad craftspeople to make actual fairies out of iron at the bar’s original location. Unfortunately, Sutton’s landlord wasn’t too charmed by her shophouse being made into a cavernous, crumbling factory-slash-bar and she eventually gave him the boot in April, 2013. Sutton packed his steel spiraling staircase and his fairy dust and moved a few shophouses down, where he’s just reopened an Iron Fairies that’s twice the size of the original.

Call: 02-714-8875
Address: The Iron Fairies, 404 Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Thonglor), Bangkok, Thailand
Nearest Train: BTS Thong Lo
Opening Hours: daily 6pm-2am