The India Club has been operating as an Indian restaurant since 1946.
London:
The India Club in London, with its early roots in the Indian independence movement as a hub for nationalists and a home away from home for Indians in the country over the years, will close permanently on Sunday.
The walls were decorated with photos of prominent Indians, such as former prime ministers. The founding member of the Club was Krishna Menon, who later became independent India’s first High Commissioner in Britain. As well as housing one of Britain’s first Indian restaurants, India Club quickly transformed into a hub for a fast-growing British South Asian community in the wake of Indian independence.
“We have been completely overwhelmed since the public found out we were closing on September 17,” said Phiroza Marker, the club’s manager.
“We are closing, but are looking for a new building nearby to move to,” she said.
Parsi native Yadgar Marker has run the establishment with his wife Freny and daughter Phiroza since saving it from collapse in 1997 as directors of Goldsand Hotels Limited.
The family had launched an appeal for the “Save India Club” and won an initial battle to prevent the building from being partially demolished a few years ago, when they were served notices by the landlords to make way for a more modern hotel . However, with rental prices being increased exponentially amid a cost of living crisis, it marks the end of the road for the location.
Nostalgic visitors who have visited this little slice of India in central London, offering hot dosas and pakoras in a home steeped in history, feel bereft at the loss.
“It’s just heartbreaking. A piece of Indian history on the Strand will be lost forever,” said British Indian historian and journalist Shrabani Basu.
“As an Indian journalist based in London, this was our watering hole. There will be no more beer and pakoras in the historic bar. We will miss it,” she said.
Smita Tharoor, the London-based daughter of one of the other founders of the India Club – journalist Chandran Tharoor, has been a regular visitor along with her brother, Congressman Shashi Tharoor, and other family members.
“Many of the former leaders and founders of the India League founded the India Club to provide a home away from home for Indians living in London. My father regaled us with his stories when we were growing up in India,” she says.
“For me, the closure of the club is something very emotional and sad because it means the end of the memories of my father that have been kept alive for so many years and where I could visit when I missed him. He died at a very young age. from 63 in 1993. This is not just a place to eat Indian food. This is a place that tells us stories of the past,” she said.
Ms Tharoor recalls how the Club has counted the likes of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of independent India, and Lord Mountbatten – India’s last Viceroy – among its many distinguished visitors, and for many living in India a little corner of India has been. or a visit to the British capital.
“Menon intended the India Club to be a place where young Indian professionals living on a shoestring could afford to eat, discuss politics and plan their future,” said Parvathi Raman, founder and president of the Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), when she worked on the 2019 exhibition ‘A Home Away from Away: The India Club’, curated by the British conservation organization National Trust.
The Club has operated as an Indian restaurant on the first floor of the 26-room Strand Continental Hotel since 1946. The building’s owner, Marston Properties, had previously applied to Westminster City Council for a “part demolition” to create a new hotel. The application was unanimously rejected by the Council in August 2018, noting the site’s importance as a cultural institution in the heart of London.
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