Campaigners win battle to save Strand’s India Club

THE India Club on the Strand has been saved from closure after Westminster city council threw out a planning application, citing its cultural and historical importance.

A campaign to stop the post-colonial restaurant and bar from being engulfed by a hotel expansion won unanimous support from councillors who agreed the club had “great historical and cultural value due to its links with the IndiaLeagueandtheIndianindependence movement”.

With founding members including Countess Mountbatten, wife of the last viceroy, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, the club was founded in 1946.

More than 26,000 signed a petition opposing the plans, which also won the support of novelist Will Self, who described the club as “beautifully oldfashioned... like one in Fifties India”.

Yagdar Marker, who has run the club for the past 20 years, said it was “a constant reminder of Westminster’s multicultural identity and Indo-British friendship”. He added: “Thank you to each and every one of our supporters who have contributed to the collective voice on the unique significance of the India Club.

“We will now continue to campaign for the building’s long-term preservation, including applying to Westminster for its designation as an Asset of Community Value.”

Marston Properties, who own the freehold to the building, had wanted to expand the Strand Continental Hotel which occupies the same building, and so close the India Club.

Caroline Marston, the managing director, said the building itself had no links to the Indian independence movement.

“Our plans were first and foremost designed to bring this building in line with modern safety standards,” she said. “We always intended to keep the original frontage and had no intention of demolishing the building, as is clear in our original planning application.”