Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Si Phraya

Captain Bush Lane, now officially known as Soi Charoen Krung 30 (Thai: ซอยเจริญกรุง 30), is a side-street (trok or soi) branching off Charoen Krung Road in Bang Rak District of Bangkok, Thailand. It was home to several members of Bangkok's early European expatriate community during the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, including Captain John Bush, an influential English sea captain after whom the street is named.

During the reign of King Mongkut (Rama IV), the Chao Phraya riverside area south of Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem, just outside the boundaries of the city proper, was settled by members of the European expatriate community. Numerous consulates were established here, and Charoen Krung Road, completed in 1864, was built to serve the area.

The riverside area now served by Soi 30 used to be the area of a Buddhist temple called Wat Kaeo Fa (วัดแก้วฟ้า). During the 1880s, part of the temple grounds were given for the establishment of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the United Club (a Western social club). Streets (now Captain Bush Lane and the final stretch of Si Phraya Road) were built to serve the area, which also became home to several European expatriates, including consulate officials and Captain Bush himself.

In a letter dated 25 March 1898, Captain Bush and twelve other foreigners made a complaint to the Foreign Minister regarding the stench and hygienic hazards emanating from the temple's cremation grounds, which had already resulted in the death from cholera of a fellow European living in the area. A subsequent official investigation found that the area was the site of a public latrine, that some locals kept pigs, which contributed to the smell, and that the temple's old graveyard was being used as an open refuse dump. The investigation suggested that the temple be relocated and the area redeveloped. During the same time, the temple's abbot also complained to Prince Naris about the prohibition on cremation imposed on the temple, which adversely affected its finances, already constrained by being in the middle of a European community. The Prince subsequently recommended the relocation to King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who reluctantly approved, although it took around a decade in total before the temple was re-established as Wat Kaeo Chaem Fa (วัดแก้วแจ่มฟ้า) at a new site on Si Phraya Road, donated by the Privy Purse in exchange for the former grounds.

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