The place is nondescript; should you do not search for it, it’s possible you’ll not discover it. And but, for over 70 years, many Indians in London have sought it out, in search of acquainted flavours and faces – a style of dwelling overseas.

The India Club – an iconic lounge-cum-restaurant and bar – that sits contained in the Hotel Strand Continental on a busy stretch of highway in central London, has been a traditionally and culturally important house for the South Asian group within the metropolis for many years.

It was arrange within the Nineteen Fifties as a spot for early Indian immigrants to fulfill and join, however now the India Club is about to close down because the homeowners of the constructing it’s housed in wish to demolish part of the construction to arrange a extra modernised resort.

Many patrons say they’re saddened by the information because the closure of the Club will result in the town dropping part of its historical past.

The Club has been battling in opposition to closure for years. A few years in the past, its homeowners – Yadgar Marker and his daughter, Phiroza – gained their battle in opposition to the demolition after their marketing campaign to avoid wasting the place acquired 1000’s of signatures.

But final week, they advised the press that 17 September can be the final day the Club would stay open.

The information has come as a blow to many because the place is steeped in historical past. Located on the primary ground of the Hotel Strand Continental, the India Club was began by the members of the India League – a Britain-based organisation that campaigned for India’s independence within the 1900s. India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru is alleged to have been among the many Club’s founding members. The Markers purchased the lease to the property within the Nineteen Nineties.

Reports say that India’s freedom activists initially used the Club as a gathering house, however later it grew to become a spot for folks from the South Asian group to forge friendships over shared meals and occasions.

“In the 1950s and 60s, it was the only place Indians could go to meet people who spoke their language and ate their food,” says Kusoom Vadgama, a historian who often visited the Club after she moved to the UK in 1953.

“The India Club helped all of us feel a little less alone in our new home,” she mentioned, including that folks would usually meet there to rejoice birthdays, weddings and even Indian festivals like Diwali – the Hindu competition of lights.

Ms Vadgama grew up underneath colonial rule in East Africa and moved to the UK to check. Many folks from India had additionally immigrated to the UK within the years following the nation’s independence, however there have been hardly any cultural institutions for the Indian diaspora in London again then, she mentioned.

The India Club crammed this gaping gap for the group. It served up dishes that have been acquainted to the Indian palate, equivalent to south Indian staples like dosas (a pancake constructed from fermented rice) and sambhar (a lentil gravy seasoned with spices); north Indian delicacies like butter rooster (rooster cooked in a buttery curry); Indian road meals like pakoras (vegetable fritters) and, in fact, espresso and masala chai (milk tea infused with spices).

Even the interiors of the Club have been designed to imitate the espresso outlets of pre-independence India, the place folks met to talk about tradition and politics over cigarettes and cups of chai. The chandeliers, Formica tables and straight-backed chairs of the Club have remained largely unchanged because it was arrange greater than 70 years in the past.

In an ode to its wealthy socio-political historical past, the partitions are lined with portraits of distinguished Indian and British personalities who visited through the years, equivalent to Dadabhai Naoroji, the primary British Indian MP, and thinker Bertrand Russell.

Over the years, the Club grew to become a well-liked “watering hole” for not simply immigrants, however folks from all walks of life, together with journalists and for varied India-British teams and associations.

Journalist and writer Shrabani Basu remembers frequenting the restaurant with fellow journalists within the Nineteen Eighties. “It was one of the few places that served affordable Indian food in central London,” she says, including that the India Club is like the town’s “hidden secret”, and she or he loves taking family and friends who go to from India there.

Smita Tharoor, a motivational speaker, says her father Chandan Tharoor, who was one of many Club’s founding members, had loads of enjoyable tales concerning the place which he frequented as a bachelor, together with one about “a bar lady who would refuse to serve drinks to men she thought were drunk”.

When he came around her in London years later, her father took her to the Club. Since then, Ms Tharoor has develop into an everyday customer too. “After my father passed away, I held an event at the India Club in his honour. I also held my husband’s 50th birthday there,” she says. “The India Club has a very special place in our hearts, and it’s sad to see it go. Now, only the memories remain,” she says.

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and options.