UK oldest Restaurant Veeraswamy facing eviction

UK oldest Restaurant Veeraswamy facing eviction

UK’s oldest Indian restaurant keeps serving as court fight delayed.

UK’s oldest Indian restaurant keeps serving as court fight delayedVeeraswamy is facing eviction by the Crown Estate, which wants to refurbish the Regent Street building it has occupied for 100 yearsPatrons dining at Veeraswamy Indian restaurant in Regent Street, 1973.

A legal showdown between Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant and the Crown Estate has been put on hold after a judge delayed a highly-anticipated hearing.The Crown Estate wants to evict the Michelin-starred restaurant from its premises in Regent Street, in the West End of London, which has been its home for the past century.Veeraswamy was set to get its day in court on Monday but the judge assigned to the case at Central London county court told its legal team that the five-day hearing would be delayed for “administrative reasons”.

Ranjit Mathrani, chairman of MW Eat, Veeraswamy’s owner, said that the company would be given new dates in due course, and added that “because of the prior commitments of the legal team and expert witnesses on both sides, it is unlikely to be before late autumn this year”.

The legal battle has been running for more than a year. Mathrani said Veeraswamy “will make every effort to see if the dispute can be settled before” the hearing.

Veeraswamy wants the court to allow it to stay in Victory House, near Piccadilly Circus, where it has been based since it opened in 1926. The restaurant, one of the oldest occupants on Regent Street, has served guests including Princess Anne, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi.

Its £205,000-a-year lease expired last summer after the Crown Estate decided against renewing it, although the pending legal action means it has stayed open. The estate returns its profits to the Treasury, which then hands a percentage to the royal family in the form of the sovereign grant.The landlord wants to take back the building to carry out a “comprehensive refurbishment” of the offices on the upper floors, which have been empty since the end of 2023 after a flood in the basement. The damage did not affect Veeraswamy, which has a separate power supply to the offices.One of London’s oldest Indian restaurants is celebrating in styleThe Crown Estate also wants to knock 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 it says would allow it to “materially increase” the rents it can charge.

Some of the Menu items: (Reservations at https://www.veeraswamy.com/our-cuisine/)