Nielson Hays Library Garden Cafe

Behind a century-old European-style building on Surawong Road, connected by a glass-house corridor, the Nielson Hays garden is one of the loveliest reading spots in the city – not only because it’s in a part of Bangkok sans traffic.

The library is a living piece of the city's international cultural history, founded by the expatriate community in the early twentieth century; holding fiction, non-fiction, children's books and magazines alongside a rotating gallery of Thai and international art.

The Garden Cafe is catered by the British Club next door, which means: the coffee is proper, the croissants are good and, if you find yourself ordering sausage and mash in a century-old library garden in Bangkok, you have made correct life choices. Open daily (including Mondays when the library is usually closed) the cafe works as a standalone retreat, but you’ll need to bring your own book

195 Surawong Rd. Garden Cafe. Open daily 9am-6pm. Day visitor and membership access available