'Veeraswamy', oldest Indian restaurant in Britain, under threat of closure as Crown Estate refuses to renew lease

TOI Correspondent from London: Over the years, patrons of Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant, ‘Veeraswamy’, have included Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Marlon Brando, Sharon Stone and David Cameron.

A haunt of Indian maharajas and European royalty too, the King of Denmark even shipped out a cask of Carlsberg for staff to store for whenever he dined there.

Now the Michelin-starred restaurant , which opened in 1926 on Regent Street, London, and today serves pineapple curry and chicken makhana au vin, is at threat of closure as the Crown Estate (property portfolio owned by King Charles), which owns Victory House, the building in which the restaurant is based, is refusing to renew its lease, which expires in June.

The Crown Estate claims it needs to take the restaurant space back to extend the ground floor reception for offices on the building’s upper floors. Knocking through into Veeraswamy would give it an extra 11 sq mts.

Veeraswamy’s founder, Edward Palmer, was the great-grandson of General William Palmer, and his wife, Begum Faiz Baksh, a Mughal princess. Gen Palmer was private secretary to Warren Hastings, first governor-general of the Presidency of Fort William. It was acquired by Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi in 1996.

“Had they wanted to, they could’ve easily put the office reception on the first floor. I think they’ve come to the view that it’s too tiresome having a restaurant there, they want it to be all offices,” Mathrani (81), told the Times of London.

If the Crown Estate refuses to allow the restaurant to stay put until he finds and fit out an alternative space, with its iconic décor inspired by the art nouveau of the 1920s and maharaja’s palaces, the restaurant will have to close, leading to possible redundancies and loss of business until a new site is found.

Mathrani is taking the Crown Estate to court.

A spokesperson for The Crown Estate told TOI: “The Crown Estate has a duty to generate value for the nation, while acting as responsible stewards for this historic part of London. We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible. Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.”