In order to forestall more email in response to the G-File, from a reader:
Dear Jonah:
You will probably end up with many more such emails from those vastly more
well-informed, but:
http://www.menumagazine.co.uk/book/restauranthistory.html
The critical passage is:
The first recorded Indian restaurant of the twentieth century was the Salut
e Hind in Holborn in 1911 but the first to have any real influence was The
Shafi opened by Mohammed Wayseem and Mohammed Rahim in 1920. Coming from
North India they opened their cafe in London’s Gerard Street (now the centre
of London’s Chinatown) and employed four or five ex seamen. It soon became a
kind of community and Indian Student Centre. Indian students in the UK rose
from 100 in 1880 to 1800 by 1931.
Soon The Shafi was taken over by Dharam Lal Bodua and run by an English
manager with employees such as Israil Miah and Gofur Miah who were later to
run their own establishments. One of Dharam’s great friends was Bir Bahadur
from Delhi who opened The Kohinoor in Roper Street (pulled down in 1978) and
was to have a major influence on the industry.
These restaurants were, not surprisingly, mainly for Asians but in 1927 the
first fashionable Indian restaurant opened when Edward Palmer opened
Veeraswamy’s Indian Restaurant in London’s Regent Street where it still
thrives today owned by Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi. Edward Palmer had
been greatly encouraged by friends and acquaintances after his successful
running of the Mughal Palace in The Empire Exhibition at Wembley a few years
before and he brought staff from India and created a traditional atmosphere
such that it became called “The ex-Indian higher serviceman’s curry club”.
Many of the people from all over India who were later to become the backbone
of the new ‘curry’ restaurant industry, learned their trade at The
Veeraswamy.