Opened in 1901, and run by the famed Sarkies brothers (they also owned Raffles in Singapore and the Eastern and Oriental in Penang), this historic hotel in its early years hosted the likes of Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell and W. Somerset Maugham.
The hotel was built by Turkish-Armenian contractor Tigran Nierces Joseph Catchatoor, who is buried around the corner in the cemetery next to the Armenian Church of St John the Baptist .
In 1913 an annex was built next door; this now houses the Australian Embassy. During WWII, the Japanese took over the running of the Strand, which they renamed the Yamato Hotel.
Burmese nationals were allegedly not allowed to stay in the hotel until 1945. From 1962 to 1989, in what was quite possibly its darkest period, the Strand was owned and managed by the Burmese government. In 1979 when Tony Wheeler reviewed the Strand for the first edition of this guidebook he found a 'tatty and dilapidated' colonial relic where you were more likely to encounter rats than a soft bed and a hot shower.
Having closed for three years of renovations the Strand reopened to its present luxurious incarnation in 1993.
