UK’s oldest Indian restaurant takes crown estate to court over theatened eviction

Michelin-starred Veeraswamy faces closure as King Charles’s property developer refuses to renew its lease

The UK’s oldest Indian restaurant will be taking the crown estate to court this month as it faces eviction.

Veeraswamy has been serving up curries on Regent Street in London for a century, but now faces closure as the property portfolio owned by King Charles has refused to renew its lease.

The restaurant opened in April 1926 and has served guests including Winston Churchill, Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Charlie Chaplin and even Queen Elizabeth II.

The menu was created by the Indian-born Edward Palmer, who was inspired by the recipes for the dishes served at the royal palace of Hyderabad, which he had learned from his grandmother.

It is even claimed that the habit of having a pint with a curry in England began at the restaurant, which now has a Michelin star. According to the owners, the king of Denmark used to visit Veeraswamy whenever he came to London – he decided to ship out a cask of Carlsberg beer to be stored at the restaurant and served to him whenever he ate curry.

It survived the blitz and the peaks and troughs of the competitive restaurant sector, but now faces the culmination of a year-long legal battle after the crown estate declined to renew the restaurant’s £205,000-a-year lease last year.

The case could lead to the restaurant in Victory House being converted into office space.

Veeraswamy’s parent company MW Eat will be presenting its case to the central London county court in a five-day hearing beginning on 29 June.

The estate said it wanted to carry out a “comprehensive refurbishment” of the offices on the building’s upper floors, which have been empty since a flood affected their power supply in 2023.

This would involve knocking down the wall that separates the entrance to Veeraswamy and the entrance to the offices to create a larger reception area for office tenants, which would allow it to “materially increase” the rents it can charge.

But the owners of the restaurant, which has operated in the space since 1926, say the works could be done without evicting them.

In a witness statement, Ranjit Mathrani, the co-owner of MW Eat, said: “It is well within the competence of many reputable contractors to deliver the defendant’s programme of works in a manner which could accommodate the restaurant business.

“This is a standard part of many similar refurbishments in London and elsewhere in the UK.”

The restaurant has proposed sharing the larger entrance with the office space, and also offered to match the increased rents the crown estate believes it could get from new office tenants. However, the estate declined.

“This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly,” a spokesperson for the crown estate said. “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.”

But Mathrani, 83, has described those claims as “disingenuous”, adding that though the restaurant was willing to “consider alternative premises”, nothing suitable had been offered.

A point of contention is that MW Eat expects the cost of relocating, fitting out the new site and having to close during the move in would be around £5m, and says the crown estate’s offer of compensation would only cover “a fraction of these costs”.

The building is part of the vast land and property portfolio of the crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family. It belongs to the reigning monarch “in right of the crown”. But it is not their private property. The monarch surrenders the revenue from the estate to the Treasury each year for the benefit of the nation’s finances, in exchange for the sovereign grant.

There has been a huge campaign to keep the restaurant in its historic space, including top chefs, restaurant critics aand notable diners. A petition to keep Veeraswamy in its original premises has amassed 20,000 signatures and was delivered to Buckingham Palace by the restaurant’s owners in February.

The crown estate said: “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.”