In Photos: London's Landmark 'India Club' Restaurant to Shut After Over 70 Years

The building in which India Club is housed has been a key feature in the story of India League from the late 1920s.

The India Club was formally established by V K Krishna Menon with the support of prominent journalist Chandran Tharoor in 1951. Its founding members, and also among the first names on the list of members, included Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.

(Photo: Altered by Namita Chauhan/ The Quint)

Established formally in 1951 by the first High Commissioner to the UK, VK Krishna Menon under the India League, the India Club continued to remain a base to further Indo-British Friendship in the post-independence era. The restaurant at 143 Strand – which is also a significant symbol of the post-colonial reflection of India – remained unchanged.

Until now. The restaurant will host its final service on 17 September, following which it will permanently shut down. 

Over the years, the India Club became a foundation for groups serving the Indian and south Asian communities in central London. “It also creates a sense for most of the visitors coming to the restaurant that they are experiencing a kind of mid-twentieth century, old school club, which captures what it might have been like for Indians living in London in that period. There is nothing like food and the places in which we eat it, for helping to generate a public sense of a place’s historical significance,” says William Gould, Professor of Indian history at the University of Leeds.

“Secondly, because of the exhibition work which has been done at the Club, and principally via the National Trust, we now have new oral histories of the early migrants to London and their connection to the India Club, which have been deposited at the British Library. These evoke the specific experience of moving to London or the UK and the emotional effects of living away from one’s homeland. It perhaps also generates a sense of the internationalism inherent in India’s freedom movements,” says William Gould.

The late President Dr S Radhakrishnan with Indian journalists in 1951.

Chandran Tharoor, centre, overseeing a social evening in the club.

Inaugural event of the India Club at 41 Craven Street, WC2.

Doris Mannell started working in the bar of the India Club in 1964 and refused to retire until she was touching 90 years old as she was so attached to the place.

Gyanaprakasam Joseph was head waiter at the India Club for 37 years. He held all his family occasions at the Club including his wedding celebration (attached). The public held a great attachment to him and on his passing, his obituary appeared in The Guardian.

The three strong women who ran in the India Club (from left to right: Christine who was head waitress, C Chauhan who cooked in the kitchen and Dois who was our bar-lady for over fifty years).

A portrait of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was also one of the founders and members of the club.

A newspaper cutting from India Weekly that features VK Krishna Menon.

Julius Silverman, a British Labour Party politician is greeted at the President's palace. Silverman had a long-standing association with Indian organisations in Britain. He was chairman of the Birmingham branch of Krishna Menon's India League and attended many meetings at the India Club.

In 1966, the Air India office PR head for London, was Trevor Turner (standing) who was retiring. India Weekly Newspaper gave him this farewell party at the India Club. Left to Right: KV, Dr. Tarapada Basu, the India Weekly Editor, Dr. Shelvankar, journalist columnist with India Weekly and was also the foreign correspondent of The Hindu who later went on to Moscow as India’s Ambassador.

Portrait of the first British Indian MP, Dadabhai Naroiji in the dining hall of the India Club.