Nana Plaza

Nana Plaza entrance sign, 2017
Nana Plaza Location within Bangkok
Address	3-3/1 Sukhumvit Soi 4, Sukhumvit Road[1]
Location	Bangkok, Thailand
Coordinates	13°44′28.9″N 100°33′11.4″E / 13.741361°N 100.553167°E / 13.741361; 100.553167
Public transit	Nana BTS station
Owner	Paul Hayward
Website
nanaplazabkk.com

Nana Plaza (formerly Nana Entertainment Plaza) is an entertainment complex and red-light district in Bangkok, Thailand. Originally built as a shopping center, Nana Plaza occupies a three-story commercial building in the Khlong Toei District of Bangkok about 300 metres (330 yd) from the BTS Skytrain's Nana Station.^[2][3] It describes itself as the "worlds largest adult playground".^[4][5][6] Its name originates from the influential, property-holding Nana family, Lek Nana being the most prominent member.

Along with Soi Cowboy and Patpong, Nana Plaza is one of Bangkok's three most concentrated red-light districts. All attract primarily tourists.^[2]

The plaza's U-shaped building is roughly square-shaped, with a single opening on the west side, and consists of a ground floor and two additional floors arranged around a courtyard.^[2] The plaza opened in 1983^[7] and by the mid-1980s around twenty go-go bars had opened in the three-level court, taking advantage of the expansion of tourist hotels in the area.^[6]

In 2012 Nana Plaza was sold to a Thai JVC company Nana Partners Co Ltd., co-owned by Fico corporation and Panthera Group (formally known as Eclipse group) – one of Thailand's largest bar and nightclub operators^[8] – for a rumored US$25,000,000 after the land was inherited by seven sisters who wanted nothing to do with a red-light area.^{[citation needed]} Panthera Group renovated the complex, becoming the landlord and providing the management and security services.^[8]

On the plaza's three floors there are thirty go-go bars, one beer bar and three small short-time hotels that rent out rooms by the hour. Soi 4, the street outside the plaza, is a venue for street prostitution and contains beer bars, massage parlors, and hotels of the conventional and short-time variety.^[7] Short-time hotels are rented to patrons taking a bargirl for sex. Most bar girls in Nana Plaza will leave with customers upon payment of a bar fine. Smoking is banned indoors.^[3] There are two elevators, one on the north side of the building and one on the south.^{[citation needed]} The building closes at 03:00 and lies dormant until the following evening.^[3] In 2016 two waitresses in the plaza's Bangkok Bunnies go-go bar said that they received monthly wages equivalent to £130 (US$165) and daily tips equivalent to £11–16 (US$14–20).^[9] This compares with a 2016 average monthly wage in Thailand of around 13,800 baht (US$388).^[10]

As of July 2019, there were seven kathoey ("ladyboy") bars in Nana Plaza;^[11][12] Several other bars have a few ladyboys in their line-ups mixed with their regular go-go dancers.

• 
  Entrance to Nana Plaza when it was a shopping center
• 
  Entrance to Nana Entertainment Plaza showing the old overhead signage
• 
  Nana Plaza, May 2004
• 
  Ladyboys, Cascade Bar
• 
  Nana Plaza, November 2015

• Nightlife in Bangkok
• Prostitution in Thailand

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nana Plaza.

• Official Nana Plaza Website
• Interview With Paul Hayward, Owner Of Nana Plaza
• Five Decades of Nana – documentary about the history of the bar areas of Nana (on YouTube)