By Karan Thapar

Next year Veeraswamy, the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain – actually, its owners claim it could be the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the world – will be a hundred years old. Alas, that could also be the precise moment it ceases to exist. So, what is intended as a celebration could end up a wake.

Veeraswamy is perhaps one of the best-known landmarks on London’s Regent Street. Not so long ago it had Austin Reed on its left and Aquascutum in front. Both of those legendary clothiers have disappeared. They have passed into history. Is that what might happen to Veeraswamy?

If it does, its owners, Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi, believe it would be “cultural philistinism”. Not many would disagree.

It was way back in 1926 that Veeraswamy was founded by Edward Palmer, the great grandson of General William Palmer and the Moghul Princess Faisan Nissa Begum. The restaurant is named after his grandmother Veera. In 1937 it became the first establishment outside India to install a tandoor oven. In the ’40s it survived the blitz, its diners allegedly undeterred by German bombs.

The truth is Veeraswamy has always been one of the favourite eating spots for some of the most famous residents of London. The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) dined there so frequently that his coat of arms used to adorn the entrance.

In fact, in the early 1930s, the Crown Prince of Denmark couldn’t resist the place. He was not just a regular. It was one of his favourite haunts. The Goan-style Duck Vindaloo was his preferred dish. In gratitude he took to sending a cask of Carlsberg to the restaurant every Christmas. Perhaps this is the origin of the British passion for beer and Indian food, which today is the mainstay of people who roll out of pubs hungry and tipsy around eleven every night.

Veeraswamy has also been very popular with Indians. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Krishna Menon were frequent visitors. So too Churchill, the Kings of Sweden and Jordan, Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Pierce Brosnan, Princess Anne and David Cameron. In 1948 it catered to the Indian Olympic team. In 2017 Queen Elizabeth asked Veeraswamy to cater for the visiting President of India.

The problem threatening Veeraswamy is that the building where it’s housed on Regent Street is part of the Crown Estate, the institution that runs King Charles’s properties. They’ve decided not to renew the lease when it expires in April next year. Instead, they want to take over the 11 square metre ground floor entrance to the restaurant so they can extend the reception for the offices on the building’s upper floors. “I think they have come to the view that it's too tiresome having a restaurant there. They want it to be all offices.”, Mathrani recently told The Times.

Veeraswamy has, of course, gone to court but the case is still to be heard. They have also organized a petition which tens of thousands have signed and which will, in due course, be presented to the King. But if none of that works then, as Mathrani bluntly puts it, “we’ll have to close down and then seek to revive in a new site after whatever period of time with all the implications for loss of business (and) potential redundancies.” And then he ruefully adds, this might “effectively destroy a major London institution”.

That would be truly tragic. It’s not just Veeraswamy’s place in history that should be protected and preserved. It’s also a rather good restaurant. In 2016 it was awarded a Michelin star, which it holds to this day. There aren’t many other Indian restaurants that can make a similar boast.

So will King Charles intercede and prevent Veeraswamy’s closure? It’s the only hope left. But just in case he doesn’t I shall, on my next visit to London, make a point of dining there if only, sadly, to bid a fond adieu. Why don’t you consider doing the same?