"The loss of heritage concerns me more than the loss of my business,” Yadgar Marker who holds the lease of the historic India Club in London was quoted in The Times of India of October 6, 2017. "We have currently submitted an application to Historic England to gain listed status for the premises. They are currently assessing the application and will let us know in approximately 15 weeks,” Marker responded to Parsiana’s queries.
India Club is a popular and well established restaurant/bar that functions on the first floor of The Strand Continental Hotel, a popular low cost option in central London. Marston Properties, a property management company that has free hold rights over the building, has reportedly submitted plans to the local Westminster Council to partially demolish and remodel the six-storeyed Edwardian building to make way for a 30-bedroom modern hotel, according to news reports forwarded to Parsiana by Malcolm Deboo, president of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. Marker and his wife Freny "are the sole shareholders of… Goldsand Hotels Limited which is the company registered name, trading as Strand Continental Hotel/India Club,” states Yadgar who has made improvements to the running of the business since he bought over the lease of the premises in 1997. According to Yadgar, a similar redevelopment proposal had been put forth five years ago which was refused by the court.
India Club was known to be a hub for Indian nationalists, intellectuals and politicians in the pre and post Independence era. When it was launched by V. K. Krishna Menon, who later became India’s first high commissioner to the UK, it served as a meeting place for the intelligentsia and for the India League, a British organization which campaigned for Indian independence. The League evolved from the Commonwealth of India League and Annie Besant’s Home Rule for India League. The Club’s founding members included Lady Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Clockwise from above: Yadgar and Freny Marker; India Club restaurant and bar that retains the colonial ambience;
Strand Continental Hotel; Dadabhai Naoroji’s portrait on the premises;
Currently it is patronized "by a wide section of society, from lawyers of the nearby Royal Courts of Justice, to diplomats, academics (from nearby King’s College and the London School of Economics), students, writers (such as Will Self) and people from the arts world,” elaborates Yadgar.
The Club retains the colonial ambience of the 1940s from simple wooden formica tables and green padded chairs, paintings by M. F. Husain and portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Dadabhai Naoroji, Julius Silverman (British Labour Party Member of Parliament) and Indira Gandhi. The linked (decor) India restaurant is known for its rustic décor and authentic South Indian fare. "We have done everything possible to retain the ethos and spirit of the place. We intend to build as much community support as possible,” declares Yadgar who is from Karachi and moved to London in 1968. He has been married for the last 31 years to Freny who is from Poona. Their four children, Rustom, Phiroza, Shirin and Arnaz, "have all at some points in their life taken part in the family business. We intend to keep the business running and put up a good fight,” asserts Yadgar.
Nearly 10,000 signatories have supported Yadgar’s application including the great-great-grandson of Annie Besant, James Castle, and Lord Mountbatten’s great-grandson Rowan Brudenell. Castle was quoted in the Times report: "Annie Besant... fought for Home Rule for India for half her life. The spirit of the older Indian British connections lives on in the India Club and it must be looked after. I’ve been going there since 1982.”
Expecting to garner support from the Indian Government too, the petition has already received backing from Congress Member of Parliament and author Shashi Tharoor whose father Chandran Tharoor had co-founded the India Club.
"Though there are several options for the building’s future, no plans have been fixed and no one has been given any notice to leave,” Marston Properties director Simon Marshall was quoted in the Times report.