Next steps for the India Club

India Club interior courtesy of the India Club

The much-loved India Club at 143 Strand is facing a second planning application. The Club’s importance was recently celebrated in an on-site exhibition organised by The National Trust, ‘A Home Away From Home’.

Yadgar Marker who currently runs The India Club tells Strandlines:

‘Westminster Council are currently accepting comments from the public and they especially want to hear from our neighbours.

The building tells an important, and often overlooked chapter in British history – of the struggle for newly arrived migrants from the Indian subcontinent, to this country. Few buildings during the mid-20th century offered a sanctuary and the beginnings for a community. It was also a place of cultural exchange where diplomats, academics and journalists would meet.

The current planning application outlines a space for a hotel restaurant and hotel bar, but provides no re-assurance that it will be the India Club. It seeks to partially demolish the building, construct a rear extension and re-configure the interior to make way for more hotel rooms. It would be of utmost help to our campaign to preserve the India Club if you could make a comment to Westminster Council as soon as possible.

The steps of how to do this are:

  1. Go to westminster.gov.uk
  2. Press ‘Search applications’
  3. Search using reference 18/06798/FULL
  4. Click on the ‘Comments’ tab
  5. Click on ‘Login and make a comment’ at the bottom of the page
  6. You will then be re-directed to either login or to register a new account, and you can make a comment after doing so.

If you could spread the word to any other supporters at Strandlines or Kings College, this would be very appreciated. Thank you.’

Clare Brant

Clare Brant

Clare is co-Director of the Centre for Life-Writing Research, and Professor of Eighteenth-century Literature & Culture in the English Department at King’s College London.

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