The India Club, a lounge-cum-restaurant and bar, is set to close on September 17 after 70 years of service. Its closure marks the end of an era for the Indian diaspora.
Walking up the narrow, black and white tile-chequered staircase of the Hotel Strand Continental, I stumbled upon a young Indian couple who warned me, “Don’t bother going up. They are full for today and not taking any more bookings.” I thanked them for the advice, but told them I was meeting a friend who had arrived early and was waiting in the queue. “Lucky you. We will come early tomorrow and try again,” they said as they walked out, dejectedly.
The lounge bar-cum-lobby on the first floor was teeming with people waiting to be called to the restaurant on the second floor. It seemed everyone had the same idea ever since they heard that the iconic India Club was finally shutting its doors on September 17 — come and have that last favourite meal and say goodbye to a place which held personal memories for most patrons.
I had tasted my first-ever dosa here as a child when my father took us to the India Club in the 1970s. It was the only place in London and probably the UK that served dosas at that time and, during his bachelor days in the 1960s, my father would go there whenever he got homesick for a lamb bhuna and roti — long before chicken tikka masala became the national dish of the British.
For the diaspora, a home away from home
Tucked away inside a six-storeyed Edwardian building, the India Club has been at 143-145, The Strand, since 1950. VK Krishna Menon founded the India League in the 1940s as the vehicle to fight for Indian independence and this was one of the places where the group would hold its meetings. In 1947, Menon became independent India’s first high commissioner in London. At his behest, the India League, which campaigned for Indian Independence in Britain, took two floors of the Strand Continental Hotel on lease and set up The India Club.
The dining room, with portraits of VK Krishna Menon and Mahatma Gandhi on the wall.
Just round the corner from India House at Aldwych the City of Westminster, it pretty much became the canteen for the Indian High Commission and luminaries, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, dined at the restaurant. It was also the perfect location to serve as a base for the Indian community and to foster Indo-British friendship in the post-independence era. The Indian Journalist Association, Indian Workers Association and the Indian Socialist Group of Britain were just some of the groups which used India Club for their events and activities.
It also served as a base for the new wings of the India League, which ran a free legal advice bureau and a research and study unit from it. More importantly, it was a significant focal point for the subcontinent’s diaspora communities. For a generation of pioneering migrants, it was a home away from home. India Club remained true to its original purpose till recent times, with various Indo-British groups using it as their base, including the Calcutta Rowing Club, the Goan Association and the Curry Club.
Vintage ambience, affordable pricing
In 1997, Yadgar Marker, a Parsee gentleman, took over the lease of the India Club and has been running it with his daughter, Phiroza, since then. While Britain’s Health and Safety rules obliged him to refurbish the hotel rooms on the upper floors which are still remarkably modestly priced for central location, he remained dedicated to preserving the vintage ambience of the lounge and restaurant.
The lounge on the first floor
The lounge, with its beautiful stained glass windows and a wooden bar, has the feel of a bygone era. The no-frills 40-seater dining room still looks as it did in the 1950s, with plain bentwood chairs and wooden tables, which have been topped with melamine for an easy clean. The mustard-coloured walls are adorned with portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Dadabhai Naoroji and, of course, Menon.
The Markers also kept the same menu with all the old favourites — lamb bhuna, yellow dal, vegetable stew, chicken curry, palak paneer, parathas, rotis and, of course, the masala dosa, with sambhar and coconut chutney. Despite being in the heart of London, surrounded by glitzy hotels and restaurants, the Markers kept the prices affordable. They even started a lunch-box delivery service for the local offices.
The campaign to save the club
In September 2017, the Markers were suddenly told that the India Club was under threat of closure. The landlord, Marston Properties, had applied for the planning permission from the Westminster City Council to raze the building and put up a modern hotel complex in its place. The Markers launched a ‘Save the India Club’ petition and managed to get 26,000 signatures, including those of prominent personalities from both India and the UK.
Impressed by the signature campaign and the case put up by the Markers, the Westminster City Council’s planning sub-committee turned down the Marston Properties proposal in 2018. Councillor Tony Devenish, chairman of the sub-committee, said in a statement: “The Westminster Council refused permission for the redevelopment of 143-145 Strand due to the potential loss of an important cultural venue located on its site, the India Club. The India Club has a special place in the history of our Indian community and it is right that we protect it from demolition.”
Having dodged a bullet, the Markers were urged to apply for India Club to be designated as an “Asset of Community Value” to give it greater protection from demolition. The Markers tried to gain listed status for the site through English Heritage, trawling through The British Library for old photographs which showed that nothing in the building had been changed and it had retained many of its colonial features, and tracking down individuals who had been frequenting the India Club since the 1950s.
However they were unsuccessful and India Club was not given listed status because it supposedly ‘lacked architectural merit’. The Westminster Council was severely critical of Historic England for not taking into account the India Club’s cultural values and its historic links with the India League and denying it protection.
Meanwhile, Marston Properties appealed against the rejection of the planning permission with Westminster Council and after a five-year long legal battle, they won the right to evict the India Club from its premises and replace it with a modern hotel. With the closure of the India Club, all traces of the India League’s legacy will be gone as all the bases of the League in the Strand area have already been redeveloped. On Sunday (September 17), India Club will serve its last dosa and close its doors, and with it a big slice of Indian history will be lost forever.
