A plaque at the building's entrance is in Burmese and English. The English portion reads:
"LOKANAT BUILDING
circa 1906
This building as constructed by the Jewish Sofaer family
and for many decades housed several of the city's most
prestigious firms as wellas the Vienna Cafe on the
ground floor. It was known as Randeria House from the
1930s and then as the Lokanat Building after the
Lokanat Gallery was established on the first floor in 1971."
On September 21, 2015, the Myanmar Times (
visit link) included a better photo of the entire building and reported:
"Yangon Heritage Trust marks history of Lokanat building
By Zay Yar Lin | Monday, 21 September 2015
Yangon Heritage Trust has given its eighth blue plaque marking Yangon’s heritage to a 109-year-old colonial building at the corner of Pansodan and Merchants streets on September 18.
The Lokanat building was constructed in 1906, and was best known for the Lokanat Art Gallery on the first floor, which imported tiles from Manchester over 100 years ago. The building is now occupied by the Internal Revenue Department and several private businesses, according to a press release.
Originally called “Sofaer’s Building”, it was designed by Issace A Sofaer, a Jewish trader from Baghdad. In the 1930s it was renamed “Randeria Building” after being bought by a family of Indian Surti traders, and later housed a number of different private and government bodies, including the Forestry Department and a government store run by the Ministry of Industry No 1 on the ground floor, the press release said.
“The Lokanat building used to be one of the most important business addresses in Yangon where people bought Egyptian cigarettes, Munich beer and candies from England,” the press release said. The building was also home to the Bank of Burma, the China Mutual Life Insurance Company, the officers of the Reuters Telegram Company, a German photographer, a Greek leather merchant and a Filipino hairdresser, which “illustrates the cosmopolitanism of Yangon at the time”, it said.
U Kyan Tine Aung, a spokesperson with Yangon Heritage Trust, said the blue plaque program aims to commemorate significant historical buildings as well as renowned people, while increasing public notice and value in the buildings and their history.
The trust has also installed its heritage markers on City Hall, AYA Bank headquarters, the Armenian Church, the Central Fire Station, the General Post Office, Myanma Agricultural Development Bank and the Central Press building.
U Kyan Tine Aung said there are plans to install more plaques, though the program is focused on Yangon at present. He added that damage to historic buildings is gradually declining."