london
London [Representational Image]Reuters

The India Club on the Strand, London may be just another restaurant for foodies, but to people living in the area, it is an important historical and cultural venue that was about to be torn down. 

The Westminister City Council has now shelved its plans to tear down the club after Marston Properties Ltd, the owners of the property, planned to build a hotel in the area instead. The move comes after several campaigners took to the streets of London to protest the demolition in what they called "anc.

The India Club has a deep connection with Indian history as it served as a key destination for all Indian expats in the UK since it opened in 1951. It had also served as a meeting venue for Indian League members and independence movement plans since at least 1964. Since then, it has become an important venue for not just the Indian diaspora in the UK, but also others from the South Asian community, students and journalists living in the area.

The campaigners approached Historic England, the public body tasked with looking after Britain's historic environment, to get the "Listed Building" status for the club. The body rejected the application earlier this year, saying that the status "was not designed to preserve a particular use for a building."

This left the future of the club in the hands of the city council planning committee. After a long debate, a decision was made to scrap the redevelopment plan. Yagdar Marker, who runs the restaurant since 1997, said that he would continue to campaign for the long-term preservation of the building and push the city council to accord it with an 'Asset of Community Value' status.

Marker, who founded the campaign to save the venue, has received support from various historians and politicians in the city including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. His petition, that was made public last year, has received over 26,000 signatures requesting the council to preserve the "rich cultural history" that the club represented. 

With London rapidly upgrading with modern clubs and pubs taking over the city, the Indian Club appears to be frozen in time as it still hosts the original features such as stained glass windows, Formica tables and a very rare photo of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.