Since 1926, Veeraswamy has had its dining room in Victory House, on Regent’s Street. In that time, it has seen a number of famous faces swing by, including Princess Anne, Lord Cameron and King Abdullah of Jordan. The restaurant reaches a century next year, and is thought to be Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant; certainly, it is London’s.
Now its future is in jeopardy owing to a dispute with the Crown Estate, which owns the building the restaurant occupies. The Crown Estate wish to reclaim Veeraswamy’s 11 square metre entrance space, as part of refurbishment plans for the building. These include the expansion of the ground-floor reception area to serve the offices on the upper floors. By knocking through into Veeraswamy’s entrance area, though the Crown gains the space, the restaurant would be forced to close.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate 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.”
Below, co-owner Ranjit Mathrani explains the impact it will have on him, his family, and London more broadly.
Read more: Britain's oldest Indian restaurant may have to shut in central London lease row
Veeraswamy is not just a 99-year-old institution; it is a restaurant still at the top of its game. We are not a mausoleum, we are not embalmed; we are somewhere which has evolved over the years and is still evolving.
Veeraswamy has had its Michelin star for almost 10 years — we won ours the same year as the Ritz did its, and it felt very significant — and remains a magnet for the great and the good not just from the UK, but from all over the world. We have a very strong royal connection, having been twice invited to Buckingham Palace by the late Queen, who herself accepted an invitation to come and dine here, though Covid meant it never happened. When we catered for the Queen, in 2008, we were the only restaurant in the United Kingdom ever asked to do so.
As part of our restaurant group MW Eat, my wife, sister-in-law and I bought Veeraswamy in 1996, as it was about to go into bankruptcy. We restored it back to glory, but running a restaurant like this is like maintaining a very complicated, grand garden — one that needs constant sustenance, fertilizer, replanting. It requires constant attention.
But it is a rare privilege to have and to nurture an institution of this type, to keep it relevant to today. We are very emotionally attached to it — as you would be if you’d spent all that time, all that care, and all those years on something. Veeraswamy is a restaurant of great important and significance to us; it would be a tragedy if we had no option but to close it down. We only hope we can avoid that in the end, and even avoid moving it — we want to maintain its lustre and glory.
I always think fighting in the courts is really a zero-sum game. It would be much more preferable if the Crown Estate were willing to recognise the rare history of Veeraswamy
We first became aware of the Crown Estate’s proposals after a meeting in June 2024, which was ostensibly to discuss the implications of a blockage and flooding from the previous November, which had caused the restaurants to close for three or four weeks, and at the same time they said they had come to the view that they wanted to redevelop the building for office space, which would mean losing our existing entrance, and so they wouldn’t renew our lease. And they said, if we began protesting or objecting too much, they would begin legal proceedings for the blockage — even though they provided no evidence it was our fault.
But the idea they wouldn’t extend the lease beyond this summer came as a complete shock to us. Only six or so months earlier they’d approached us to ask if we’d like to occupy an even larger bit of the premises on Regent Street, taking over the entire first floor. They said it might be a good option for us, but we thought it would make the restaurant too large, so we declined. But implicit within that chat, I thought, was that the lease would be extended — otherwise why would they be talking to us?
And so we initiated discussions with the Crown Estate to see if we could seek reconciliation of some kind. We came up with three or four proposals but the whole process was rather like action in treacle — I’d send something in, they’d say they’d come back on our plans, and nothing happened. We offered to compensate them, pay market rent, we said we’d take the whole nearby retail space as our entrance, and turn it into a smart bar — which I think came as a surprise, because they said they’d go away and think about that one — but we heard nothing further.
The Crown says their prime objective is financial, that they need the space that would be our entrance for office space, but they’ve never really satisfactorily answered our questions when we’ve indicated we’d meet those costs. We could reconcile this. They’ve been polite, made the right noises, but don’t seem interested in having us here.
I think it’s important to maintain this historical institution, but I have to consider they’re simply not terribly concerned that it’s very important to retain the place, even though they do have a duty to take social considerations into account. I can see no grounds for them to take this site from us. I am sorry to say that I feel that the representatives have had their minds closed in respect of the retention of Veeraswamy. If they get their way, London will lose one of its most precious, significant restaurants. I always think fighting in the courts is really a zero-sum game; it would be much more preferable if the Crown Estate were willing to engage in negotiation, to reconcile our objectives and recognise the rare history we have here.
