Historic India club battling demolition plans is now in court over mice infestation

LONDON: A charming London club in the Strand, soaked in history where figures from India’s independence movement gathered, has a new battle on its hands: mice.
Goldsand Hotels, which runs the India Club, admitted various charges of breaching environmental health regulations at Westminster magistrates’ court on Wednesday after the court heard that mice had been burrowing through its ceiling and that mouse droppings and dirt had been found in the kitchen, bar area, dry storage room, on the kitchen shelves and in the kitchen service areas.
“The officer observed holes in the ceiling of the kitchen and mouse droppings in the floor and wall junction,” prosecutor Kirsty Panton said. “There were mouse droppings on the floor in the kitchen, on the floor in the dry storage room, in the service bar area and on shelving in the kitchen.”
Panton said that in 2015 and 2016 the restaurant ignored officers who told them to make significant changes. “The state of the premises was appalling and fell far short of the appropriate standard required. The prosecution submits that there was a serious failure to address the risks and allowed these breaches to subsist over a period of time,” she said.
The India Club opened in 1946 and was a hub for Indian nationalists, intellectuals and politicians pre-Independence. Established by V.K. Krishna Menon, India’s first high commissioner to the UK, it served as the meeting venue of the India League, a British organisation which campaigned for Indian independence. Its founding members included Lady Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru.
“It was originally set up by the India League as a symbol of post-independence friendship and understanding between India and the UK,” Panton told the court. “The relevance of this is how the public see the restaurant and the standards that are expected, not only what you would expect from any restaurant but particularly of one with such symbolism,” Panton added.
Goldsand Hotels director Yadgar Marker, who has run the India Club bar, restaurant and hotel for 20 years, told TOI: “These are historic charges from two years ago. Ever since that time, we have made a lot of improvements and our star rating has gone up. Two days ago we had the food inspector in and she prepared a very good report. We are next to Aldwych station and the whole area is infested with mice. We try to block all the holes because they travel from one building to another. We have pest control coming and we just try to keep an eye out constantly.”
A spokesman for Westminster City Council said: “The defendant has pled guilty, and the case has been adjourned until Friday 16 February.”
The India Club already has a battle on its hands, fighting its own demolition. Marston Properties, the freeholder, has submitted plans to partially demolish and remodel the eight-storey Edwardian building to make way for a 30-bedroom modern hotel. Marker has gathered 20,000 names on a petition opposing any such move.