Last Call at London’s Historic India Club

On Sunday, the India Club in London, which had its beginnings in the Indian independence struggle and served as a gathering place for nationalists and an extended family for Indians living abroad, will shut its doors forever. The Club was founded by Krishna Menon, who later served as the country’s first High Commissioner to the UK, and whose walls were covered with images of notable Indians, including past prime ministers. Following Indian independence, India Club, which also housed one of the first Indian restaurants in the UK, swiftly evolved into a center for a burgeoning British South Asian population.

Since the public learned that we would be shutting on September 17, Phiroza Marker, the Club’s manager, remarked, “We have been completely overworked.” We are shutting, but we’re exploring for other spaces nearby to move to, she added.

Parsi-origin As the director of Goldsand Hotels Limited, Yadgar Marker has been managing the hotel with his wife Freny and daughter Phiroza since they saved it from destruction in 1997. A few years ago, the family received a warning from the landlords to make way for a more contemporary hotel. They responded by starting a “Save India Club” campaign, which they ultimately won. But with rents increasing dramatically in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the venue’s days are numbered.

The closure has left nostalgic customers who frequented this central London restaurant serving delicious dosas and pakoras in a historically significant building feeling forlorn. “It’s really heartbreaking, really. According to British Indian historian and journalist Shrabani Basu, a piece of Indian history on the Strand would be gone for all time.

“As an Indian journalist working out of London, it served as our hangout. The iconic pub will no longer serve beer and pakoras. We won’t forget it, she remarked. Smita Tharoor, a resident of London and the sister of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, has frequented the club with her family. Her father, journalist Chandran Tharoor, was another founding member of the India Club.

“Many of the previous leaders and founders of the India League founded the India Club to provide Indians residing in London with a home away from home. As children in India, my father used to entertain us with tales about it.

“The club’s closing is incredibly emotional and upsetting for me since it marks the end of memories of my father that have been preserved for so long and where I could go whenever I missed him. He passed away in 1993 at the fairly young age of 63. This restaurant serves more than simply Indian cuisine. This is a location that provides us with historical narratives, she added.

Tharoor remembers how the Club has hosted several notable guests, including Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, and Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of independent India. For many people living in or traveling to the UK capital, the Club serves as a little slice of India.

When working on the 2019 exhibition “A Home Away from Away: The India Club,” which was organized by the UK’s conservation charity National Trust, Parvathi Raman, Founding Chair of the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), noted that 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 futures.

The Club, a 26-room Indian restaurant, has been open on the first level of the Strand Continental Hotel since 1946. Marston Properties, the building’s freeholder, had previously submitted a request to Westminster City Council for a “partial demolition” in order to develop a new hotel. In August 2018, the Council overwhelmingly rejected the proposal, citing the venue’s significance as a key cultural institution in the centre of London.