Veeraswamy to fight Regent Street eviction in court

Indian restaurant Veeraswamy, which has operated on of London’s Regent Street for a century, will have its day in court after the Crown Estate refused to renew its lease.

The Michelin-starred restaurant is fighting to remain in Victory House, nearby Piccadilly Circus, where it has operated since 1926.

The restaurant’s parent company MW Eat, which has owned Veeraswamy since 1996, will present its case to the central London county court on in a five-day hearing, beginning on June 29.

The court case will be the culmination of a year-long legal battle between Veeraswamy and the Crown Estate, which refused to renew the restaurant’s £205,000 per-annum lease last summer.

The estate has said it wants to take back the building to carry out a “comprehensive refurbishment” of the offices on the building’s upper floors, which have been empty since a flood which impacted their power supply in 2023.

The Crown Estate’s also wants to knock down the wall that separates the entrance to Veeraswamy and the entrance to the offices to create a larger reception area for office tenants, which would allow it to “materially increase” the rents it can charge.

A petition to keep Veerswamy in its original premises has amassed 20,000 signatures and was delivered to Buckingham Palace by co-owners Manita Panjabi and Ranjit Mathrani in February.