Section Archive

The Pegu Club was an exclusive British retreat in colonial Rangoon that denied entrance to all Asians, including Burmese.

A vacant site at the entrance of the University of Yangon is a reminder of the independence struggle. The students’ union was dynamited in 1962 by the military regime.

One of the oldest structures in Yangon, the Norman Kyaung Kyi Htaik has been a place of learning—first for Christian missionaries and later for Buddhist monks—since 1852.

Yangon’s Government Press Building played a key role in the official life of British Burma, and has continued printing documents for Myanmar’s governments ever since.

Burmah Oil Company’s headquarters in Yangon enabled the British firm to generate huge profits while its employees lived in squalor on tiny wages.

Occupying its current site since 1886, the Yangon school once known as St. Paul High turned out many of the leading figures of the colonial and post-independence periods.

The Central Telegraph Office in Yangon was completed by the British in 1917 and continued to play an important communications role under the Japanese and junta.

The building housing the Yangon Stock Exchange has twice seen its currency stocks destroyed and then hosted the military planners who destroyed the economy after 1962.

Over 80 years, the Government House went through an evolution of British colonial governors, presidents of Myanmar and eventual neglect until Ne Win had it demolished in 1978.

Rangoon’s Jubilee Hall, one of British Burma’s architectural landmarks, survived bombing raids and earthquakes, but fell to the socialist regime’s wrecking ball in 1985.

The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company dominated river trade during the colonial period from its headquarters on Strand Road, which is the Myanma Port Authority building today.

It is 137 years since the Bernard Free Library was established by British colonialists, becoming today’s National Library of Myanmar.

The Aung San Museum in Yangon is where the independence leader wrote his speeches and prepared the Panglong Agreement. Decisions made there continue to shape Myanmar.

The obelisk at Panglong in Shan State marks the place where Gen. Aung San and ethnic leaders signed the landmark agreement in 1947 to restore independence from Britain.

Yangon’s colonial-era General Post Office played a key role in opening the isolated former kingdom up to the rest of the world, despite wars and disruption.