Writing for the BBC, royal correspondent Sean Coughlan reports that Veeraswamy, the UK’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant founded in 1926 and still operating from its original Regent Street location, faces closure after the Crown Estate declined to renew its lease as part of plans to refurbish Victory House, prompting campaigners and celebrity chefs to petition King Charles III to intervene in order to protect what they describe as a living symbol of Indo-British cultural history.
The Michelin-starred restaurant, which served customers through the Blitz and has hosted figures ranging from Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Princess Anne, has gathered more than 18,000 signatures in support of its fight to remain, with backers arguing that relocating it would strip it of its historical and cultural significance.
While the Crown Estate insists refurbishment is necessary and incompatible with the restaurant’s continued presence, offering compensation and help finding alternative premises, Veeraswamy’s co-owner Ranjit Mathrani argues that removing it from its long-standing home reflects cultural insensitivity and erases a sense of place and continuity as the dispute heads towards a possible court battle later this year, just months before the restaurant’s centenary.
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With Indian culture so entwined now in the UK, I don’t see how they can claim ‘cultural insensitivity’.
Just move it somewhere else with a nice address. The interior can be stripped and taken with them.
The building will be under renovation for years anyway.
3 comments
Writing for the BBC, royal correspondent Sean Coughlan reports that Veeraswamy, the UK’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant founded in 1926 and still operating from its original Regent Street location, faces closure after the Crown Estate declined to renew its lease as part of plans to refurbish Victory House, prompting campaigners and celebrity chefs to petition King Charles III to intervene in order to protect what they describe as a living symbol of Indo-British cultural history.
The Michelin-starred restaurant, which served customers through the Blitz and has hosted figures ranging from Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Princess Anne, has gathered more than 18,000 signatures in support of its fight to remain, with backers arguing that relocating it would strip it of its historical and cultural significance.
While the Crown Estate insists refurbishment is necessary and incompatible with the restaurant’s continued presence, offering compensation and help finding alternative premises, Veeraswamy’s co-owner Ranjit Mathrani argues that removing it from its long-standing home reflects cultural insensitivity and erases a sense of place and continuity as the dispute heads towards a possible court battle later this year, just months before the restaurant’s centenary.
[deleted]
With Indian culture so entwined now in the UK, I don’t see how they can claim ‘cultural insensitivity’.
Just move it somewhere else with a nice address. The interior can be stripped and taken with them.
The building will be under renovation for years anyway.