Britain's oldest Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy, is set to battle an eviction order in court as it fights to remain in its historic home on London's Regent Street. The restaurant, which has been located in Victory House near Piccadilly Circus since 1926, is taking legal action against the Crown Estate after the latter refused to renew its £205,000-a-year lease last year.
Historic Venue at Risk
The Michelin-starred restaurant has served numerous famous figures, including Winston Churchill, Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Charlie Chaplin, and Queen Elizabeth II. Despite its prestigious history, the Crown Estate plans to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of the office space on the building's upper floors, which have been empty since a basement flood in 2023 that did not affect the restaurant.
Planning applications submitted to Westminster City Council indicate that the works would involve removing the wall separating Veeraswamy's ground-floor entrance from the office entrance, creating a larger reception area for office tenants. This would allow the estate to materially increase the rents charged to new tenants, according to The Caterer.
Campaign and Legal Battle
In February, campaigners delivered a 20,000-signature petition to Buckingham Palace, requesting King Charles III's intervention to prevent the closure of Veeraswamy. Speaking to specialist outlet Restaurant earlier this year, Ranjit Mathrani, co-owner of Veeraswamy's parent company MW Eat, accused the Crown Estate of refusing to engage in a meaningful and constructive manner. He stated that the company would be willing to close for several months to allow refurbishment work.
"We have also suggested that their experts meet with ours to explore a solution, but they now say they have done all the necessary research and that a meeting would be pointless," Mathrani said. "This is truly astonishing and unreasonable. They present themselves as responsible landlords, but that is simply untrue. They have not behaved responsibly towards us."
The Times reported that Veeraswamy has proposed sharing the larger entrance and matching whatever rent the Crown Estate believes it can charge, but this has been refused.
Crown Estate's Position
A spokesperson for the Crown Estate explained: "We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House to both bring it up to modern standards, and into full use. We understand how disappointing this is for MW Eat and have offered help to find new premises on our portfolio so that the restaurant can stay in the West End as well as financial compensation."
The spokesperson added: "The Crown Estate has a statutory responsibility to manage its land and property to create long term value for the UK and return its profit to the UK Government for public spending. This is not a decision we've taken lightly. With external advice, we have reviewed alternative proposals including those put forward by MW Eat, and unfortunately there isn't an alternate scheme which meets our responsibilities as stewards of this heritage listed building, our legal obligations and our responsibilities to manage public money."
