| Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy, is to fight in court eviction by the Crown Estate, which wants to kick it out of its Regent Street home for the past 100 years . The county court in central London will hear arguments from the Crown Estate and Veeraswamy’s owner, MW Eat, in a five-day hearing from Monday, 29th June. The legal wrangle has been running for more than 12 months. Its £205,000-a-year lease expired last summer after the Crown Estate decided against renewing it, although it has been allowed to remain pending legal action. Veeraswamy wants the court to allow it to stay in Victory House, near Piccadilly Circus, where it has been based since 1926. The Michelin starred restaurant is among the oldest occupants on Regent Street and is popular with royals, celebrities, politicians and business people. The estate wants to take back the building to comprehensive refurbishment of the offices on the buildings upper floors, which have been empty sincelate 2023. The landlord has repeatedly said that it could not carry out the necessary works while the restaurant was in situ. In a witness statement filed before the court hearing, Ranjit Mathrani, the co-owner of MW Eat, has disputed that. “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,” he said. “This is a standard part of many similar refurbishments in London and elsewhere in the UK.” The Crown Estate’s other issue is that, as part of its 12-month renovation plans, it 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. Veeraswamy has proposed sharing the larger entrance and has offered to match whatever rents the Crown Estate believes it can charge to new office tenants. “This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly,” a spokesman 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.” In his witness statement, Mathrani, 83, called those claims “disingenuous”. He said that he remained “willing to consider alternative premises”, but nothing he had been shown matched Veeraswamy’s needs. MW Eat expected the cost of relocating, including a new fit-out and the effect of the temporary closure of Veeraswamy while it waited to move in, would be about £5m. It said the Crown Estate’s offer of compensation would only cover “a fraction of these costs”. Mathrani said: “Contrary to their public portrayals of a collaborative attitude with us, the [Crown Estate] has never been receptive to the notion of our restaurant staying in this building in any state. The court process is being misused by the defendant to orchestrate a straight tenant swap, effectively exchanging us and our business, for a different and preferred tenant operation in our space.” The Crown Estate spokesman added: “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.” https://www.veeraswamy.com |
Author: George Shaw
Former BBC journalist and founder and CEO of an award-winning London advertising and PR company for 20 years, providing restaurant consultancy services. Spent a decade as the director of communications of the Asian Catering Federation in the UK and lead judge for its various restaurant and chef awards programmes. Now returned to journalism, specialising in food and travel and currently the Editor-in-Chief for Taste London, Taste Asia, the Good Curry Guide and CEO of International Culinary Guides.