Can King Charles III Save Veeraswamy from Closure?

Campaigners fighting to save the UK’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy, are going to tack a petition to Buckingham Palace.

The Michelin-starred restaurant faces closure after its landlord, the Crown Estate, decided not to renew its lease.

Campaigners hope King Charles III will intervene, citing his long-standing support for building links between communities.

Veeraswamy’s backers describe it as “a living piece of shared cultural history” and a symbol of Indo-British connections.

The Crown Estate says the decision relates to major refurbishment plans for the building. A spokesperson said:

“This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly.”

Veeraswamy has operated from the same site for nearly a century and continued serving food through the wartime Blitz.

A petition backing the restaurant has gathered more than 18,000 signatures.

Celebrity chefs including Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux and Richard Corrigan have publicly supported the campaign.

Supporters and chefs plan to bring the petition to the gates of Buckingham Palace in the coming weeks.

A centenary dinner in March 2026, expected to attract celebrities and public figures, is also set to rally further support.

Lucy Haine, chair of the Soho Society, has backed “the fight to keep this iconic London restaurant open and trading for future generations”.

She said closing it would be a “major loss to London’s history and culinary heritage”.

The society wants Veeraswamy recognised as an “asset of community value”.

When Veeraswamy opened, it initially catered to Anglo-Indians missing the food they had enjoyed in India.

Co-owner Ranjit Mathrani says early customers included generals, civil servants and businesspeople linked to India.

Expatriate Indians also frequented the restaurant, with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru among its diners.

Veeraswamy later became a fashionable West End destination, with guests including Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando and Sir Winston Churchill.

More recent visitors have included Princess Anne, David Cameron and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The restaurant has previously worked with Buckingham Palace. Its chefs catered for important Indian visitors in 2008 and 2017.

Mathrani says the restaurant represents a vital chapter in British Indian history.

He said Veeraswamy “broke the ice” for the generations of Indian restaurants that followed and has played an “important part” in many customers’ lives.

He added: “We have people coming in to say: ‘I first came here with my godfather when I was aged 12’ or ‘I was engaged here during the Blitz’ or ‘I came here because my uncle brought me here in the 1950s’.”

Mathrani hopes the King might have a “quiet word” in support of the restaurant.

Buckingham Palace has said the matter is for the Crown Estate.

The dispute stems from plans to modernise Victory House, the Grade II-listed building it occupies.

Planning documents show proposals to convert the restaurant space into offices. They also outline changes that would make the restaurant inaccessible.

The Crown Estate says it understands this is “disappointing” for Veeraswamy. It has offered help in finding alternative West End premises, alongside financial compensation.

“We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House to both bring it up to modern standards, and into full use.”

The spokesperson added there were no alternative proposals meeting “our responsibilities to manage public money”.

Unless a settlement is reached, the dispute is expected to go to court later this summer.

Veeraswamy is challenging the decision not to renew its lease. The threat echoes the closure of the India Club in 2023, after efforts to protect it failed.

Mathrani still believes a compromise is possible.

He says the restaurant’s location offers a unique “sense of place and continuity” and he argues that trying to move it shows “cultural insensitivity”.