Lo Su Street

A walk along Lò Sũ Street today passes restaurants, coffee shops and ordinary stores, like any street in the Hoàn Kiếm area. From the outside, nothing stands out. Yet the name of the street tells a different story, about a woodworking trade that stayed here for about 200 years.

According to a Hanoi newspaper, Lò Sũ Street is 316 meters long. It begins at Trần Quang Khải Street, then crosses the intersection of Hàng Vôi and Hàng Tre. Next comes the intersection of Nguyễn Hữu Huân and Lý Thái Tổ. The street passes Hàng Dầu Street and ends at Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street. It is one of the central streets of the Old Quarter, not far from Hoan Kiem Lake.

The name comes from the word sũ, a Sino-Vietnamese word for a coffin. The same newspaper says it plainly: "The street is called Lò Sũ because in the past there were many houses here selling sũ goods, that is, shops that built and sold coffins." This was a special kind of woodworking. The craftsman had to choose durable wood, saw it exactly, fit the joints without gaps and plane every surface smooth. Then he covered the piece in many layers of paint, so that it would last in any conditions. It was highly skilled work, no different from making fine furniture.

Most of the first residents came from two villages, Liễu Viên and Phương Dực. Both lay in Thường Tín district and were known for their woodworking. They stood on the plain south of Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. About 200 years ago, these families came up to the capital to make a living. They formed a steady community of woodworkers in the middle of the city. When they founded their hamlet, they built a temple to the founder of the carpenters' craft at number 22, to keep their bond with the trade's ancestor. At number 30 they built the Trang Lâu communal house, to keep village life going inside the street.

Under French rule, from 1933, the street was named Rue Pouyanne, after a French official. In 1945, when the August Revolution took place, it was renamed Nguyễn Trãi. Nguyễn Trãi was a scholar and statesman of the 15th century. In 1949 the name Lò Sũ was restored, and it has been kept to this day. It was the residents' own original name.

The trade of making sũ goods disappeared from the street completely, many decades ago. Number 22, where the temple to the carpenters' founder once stood, is now a different building. The Trang Lâu communal house at number 30 has become the office of the Lý Thái Tổ ward People's Committee. The sound of chisels and planes is gone. So is the smell of wood and paint from the workshops along the street.

What remains on Lò Sũ Street today is the name. The name holds the memory of an ordinary but necessary woodworking trade, and of the craftsmen who left their villages in Thường Tín for Thăng Long to earn a living. They stayed so long that the name of their trade became the name of the street. Then the name outlasted many changes in the city.