Pratunam
road junction
Pratunam (Thai: ประตูน้ำ, pronounced [prātūːnáːm], also spelled as Pratu Nam), is an intersection and namesake neighbourhood in Thanon Phaya Thai sub-district of Ratchathewi district, Bangkok. The intersection is where Phetchaburi Road passes and where Ratchadamri and Ratchaprarop Roads originate. The next major intersection along Ratchaprarop Road is Makkasan.
The name "Pratunam" means "water gate". Historically, there was a water gate located within the nearby Sa Pathum Palace, commonly referred to as "Pratunam Wang Sa Pathum" (ประตูน้ำวังสระปทุม) or "Pratunam Sa Pathum" (ประตูน้ำสระปทุม). This gate was built in 1905 by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) to help drain water from the Khlong Saen Saep canal, serving both agricultural needs and maintaining water levels for boats and rafts. Two other similar water gates were also constructed in Chachoengsao Province during the same period.
In 1961, Pratunam was still a traditional market selling produce and other perishable goods. Over time, ready-made garment production began to develop, and more entrepreneurs gradually entered the trade. It eventually grew into a major clothing industry supplying retail goods to foreign customers as well as for export.
The public source identifies “Pratunam” as road junction. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pratunam, road and junction.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13026403. Authority coordinates are 13.750, 100.541. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1905 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pratunam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.