Qualla: Pegu Club

Pegu Club: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cocktail came first, at least in most people's awareness. The Pegu Club Cocktail -- gin, curacao, lime juice, Angostura bitters -- appeared in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and became a standard of the craft. But the building that gave the drink its name still stands in Yangon, a teak-framed Victorian clubhouse at the corner of Pyay, Zagawar, and Padonmar Roads, directly across from the Russian embassy. Founded in 1871, the Pegu Club was where British colonial officials came to drink, gossip, and maintain the social rituals of empire at the edge of the tropics.

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pegu Club: Where the Empire Relaxed

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. The original clubhouse, built between 1880 and 1882, quickly proved too small. Membership outstripped capacity within a year of its opening, and the club relocated to its present site. In Southeast Asia, it occupied the same social tier as the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur ...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pegu Club: Teak Built Against the Heat

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The main clubhouse was constructed entirely of teak, Burma's great architectural timber. Louvered doors and windows in the upstairs living quarters allowed cross-ventilation, drawing whatever breeze the tropical climate offered. High ceilings amplified the cooling effect. The car...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Pegu Club: Nationalized, Abandoned, Rediscovered

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. After Burma's independence, the military repurposed the compound as a tax office. When the country turned socialist in 1962, the government nationalized the premises outright. The main building became a pension office; surrounding structures housed government officials and their ...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pegu Club: The Cocktail That Outlived the Club

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Go-Myanmar, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Pegu Club Cocktail was first mixed sometime in the 1920s, behind the bar of the clubhouse itself. When Harry Craddock included it in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, the drink entered the international repertoire. Its fame eventually inspired a New York City bar called Pegu C...

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Image: Go-Myanmar | CC BY-SA 3.0