The UK’s oldest Indianrestaurant is facing eviction from its historic central London home of 99 years, in a row with King Charles’s property company.
Veeraswamy has been frequented by a host of royalty and dignitaries from Britain and overseas during its decades spent in Victory House at 99 Regent Street, with notable guests including Princess Anne, Winston Churchill, Indira Ghandi and Charlie Chaplin.
The restaurant even believes it was the only outside caterer ever to have been invited by Queen Elizabeth II to cater a function hosted by the late monarch at Buckingham Palace in 2008, an honour repeated in 2017 during a visit by the Indian president.
The Queen herself then accepted an invitatation to dine at the restaurant with Veeraswamy’s owners, but the plans were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, Ranjit Mathrani, co-owner of its parent company MW Eat told The Independent.
But Mr Mathrani now fears Veeraswamy will be forced to close after the Crown Estate opted not to renew the restaurant’s Regent Street lease, which expires in June – in a dispute over a space roughly the size of the back of a transit van.
After being informed of the decision last year, MW Eat is now taking the Crown Estate to court in a bid to delay their eviction – in the expectation that around two years would ideally be needed to reopen the restaurant at a new location.
Mr Mathrani warned that, if the Crown Estate refuses to allow Veeraswamy to remain at the site until it can find an alternative, it would be forced to close prior to reopening elsewhere, potentially putting the jobs of its 50 staff at risk.
“It would be the end of a very significant living institution,” said Mr Mathrani. “The thing about Veerswamy which is different is: it’s not a mausoleum – a sarcophagus. It’s a living, legendary institution which has been sustained and maintained over the years to be at the top of the game.”
The Crown Estate said it needs to carry out a major refurbishment of the building, with limited options because of its grade II-listed status. The offices on the upper floors of Victory House are reported to have been empty since late 2023 following a flood in the basement, which affected the power supply to parts of the building.
A Crown Estate spokesperson said: “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.”
Instead, once the entrance has been removed in order to create a reception area for the offices above, the restaurant will also be converted into new offices as part of the planned renovation, according to The Times.
Mr Mathrani told the newspaper that the Crown Estate had insisted it would not be possible to create a new entrance for the building, and has so far been unable to find suitable place nearby for the restaurant to relocate to once the lease expires.
“I think it’s an outrage. This is cultural philistinism,” Mr Mathrani told The Independent.
“Here is an institution supposedly with some regard for history given its legacy and its social objectives. And it is basically subordinating everything to the homogeneity of having a uniform office building.”
In court documents, Mr Mathrani alleges that “Crown Estate representatives made it clear to me that the historical significance of Veeraswamy is not a material consideration for them, because they are currently driven by an imperative instruction to maximise financial returns to the Treasury”.
He adds: “The general view at the Crown Estates, is that they can only do this by maximising offices and retail, and not our restaurant. However, at no stage have they asked us to match the returns they would receive from the offices or the retail unit.”
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Mathrani said he believed that, “if the Crown were being constructive and were mindful of their social responsibilities”, they could achieve their objectives by keeping Veeraswamy at Regent Street.
“It’ll be a tragedy if we were to end up – as we’re going down the path of – with long expensive court cases of no benefit to either side,” he said, adding: “It is sad and unfortunate that they’ve been unwilling to actually engage … I hope it’s not too late for them to reconsider.”
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Established in 1926 – on the same day Queen Elizabeth II was born – by retired Indian army officer Edward Palmer, grandson of the Mughal princess Faisan Nissa Begum, and taken over by MP William Stewart in 1934, Veeraswamy played host to a long list of famous figures over the past 10 decades, including Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier.
The restaurant is also said to have given rise to the tradition of pairing beer and curry, after Prince Axel of Denmark visited Veeraswamy and had a barrel of Carlsberg sent to the restaurant. It has held a Michelin star since 2016, and hosts around 80,000 diners each year, the majority of whom it says are visitors to London.
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Noting that it “has a duty to generate value for the nation, while acting as responsible stewards for this historic part of London”, the Crown Estate added: “We appreciate this is upsetting for Veeraswamy and have offered to help find new premises elsewhere on our portfolio having explored other options to accommodate their needs.
“Veeraswamy has been a valued part of Regent Street for many years. We thank them and their customers for their contributions to the West End.”
