Owner Krishna Vir (previously known asVir Bahadur)

(Courtesy of Chandra and Raghuvansh, Krishna Vir's sons) Krishna Bahadur (Mathur Family) was born in Delhi in 1894. He was active in the India independence movement. He was also a writer and had poetry and plays broadcast on All India Radio and, at some point, assumed Krishna Vir as a pen name, which he later kept as his official name. He applied for a job in the Indian Railways but failed to get it, on the excuse of his faulty hearing, because he did not bribe the medical officer, who was an Englishman. With a family to support, he decided to try his fortune elsewhere. Krishna Vir first came to London in 1920/21 and also went to America before deciding to settle in England (there is an Ellis Island record of his arrival in New York on the ship Aquitania on 21st February 1921). He returned to India but came back to London, this time with his youngest brother, Shamsher Bahadur. In 1927, the two brothers opened the Taj Mahal in Charing Cross Road, London shortly after Veeraswamy. Their business was so successful that Krishna Vir brought his entire family from Delhi to London and settled down in Golders Green, the youngest brother having no family at that time. Encouraged by their success, the brothers moved the restaurant in the early thirties (circa 1932 – 33) to larger and more luxurious premises in Argyll Street , Oxford Circus, next to the Palladium Theatre. It was still called the Taj Mahal and its style was lavish but the Great Depression intervened, the business fell a victim to it and, unable to survive, it had to be closed down. The brothers, therefore, moved to more modest premises in Percy Street, off Tottenham Court Road. It was the first Indian restaurant in that street which later housed so many. They changed the name to Kohinoor. They were joined by the middle brother, Sardar Bahadur and the business was a success. This encouraged the brothers to move to more spacious, more central and more up-market premises (circa 1935-36) in 48 Rupert Street, Piccadilly Circus. They took over a teashop called the Golden Tortoise from two old ladies and converted it in to an Indian restaurant. Later the premises number was changed from 48 to 29 but the restaurant continued in the same location. Krishna Vir remained active in the Freedom for India Movement, which he continued to promote in London, and was a friend and admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru. He and his daughter, Indira, were family friends, with Indira finding very few Indian girls of her own generation in England at that time. The Nehrus, together with their other admirers and colleagues, were guests at more than one reception in Vir house in Park Place Gardens and in the Kohinoor in Rupert Street in the 1930's. Following in her mother's (Rukmini’s) footsteps, Kashmiran the daughter also acted as Chef in the Kohinoor, contributing substantially to the success of the business. Among other distinguished clients were the Maharaja and Maharani of Jaipur, who used to come to the restaurant with his younger brother, Yashwant Singh of Sumel. Yashwant Singh and Kashmiran met, fell in love and married circa 1938. They returned to India and resided in Rambagh Palace, Jaipur, now a hotel, then the residence of their Highnesses until their own house was completed. They are now deceased. During the war the Kohinoor restaurant was sub-let and run as a Greek restaurant but at the end of the war, the sub-lease was terminated and the Kohinoor again ran as a leading Indian restaurant. By the 1960's, a myriad other Indian restaurants had opened in London (and other places) until, in 1978, the block was pulled down by the owners, the Lyons Corner House (Coventry St.) empire, and redeveloped. During the late 1930's, the three brothers opened in other cities. The Kohinoor in Cambridge at 12 St.John Street opposite St. John’s College was the first Indian restaurant to be opened outside London. The ground floor was occupied by a music shop called Galbraith, and the restaurant was above. When the music shop, moved out , the complete building was taken over and the restaurant moved to the ground floor with a party room above. Next came the first Indian restaurant in Oxford, called the Taj Mahal, and opened in small premises at 1, Ship Street. When more spacious premises became available, the Taj Mahal moved to the first floor of 16 Turl Street, the ground floor being occupied by a sports shop and later, to even more spacious premises on the first floor of the corner plot at 18, Turl Street where it continued for many years before and after the war and became a landmark, known as the Taj in the Turl. At about the same time, the first Indian restaurant in Manchester, called the Kohinoor, was opened in Oxford Road, somewhat outside the centre of the city. During the war it moved to more central and more spacious premises on the first floor of 47 Oxford Street in the heart of the entertainment industry with a party room above. This restaurant continued for many years after the war under the same family management and later was continued under a different management. Shamsher Bahadur now opened a second restaurant in London called Taj Mahal in West Street, Cambridge Circus, opposite St. Martin’s Theatre. The restaurant was on the ground floor with a party room above. When the war broke out, the West Street restaurant was closed and Shamsher, now married to a British actress, moved to Oxford. Being the entrepreneur that he was, he also returned to India in the 1950's and opened restaurants in Mussoorie, Dehradun and Lucknow until his death in 1992. Krishna, whose Indian wife had died in London after bearing three children, now with a British second wife and twin boys, lived first in Cambridge and, after the war, in Essex between London and Cambridge until his death in 1982, while Sardar, whose Indian wife remained in India until her death, lived alone in Manchester until his second marriage to an English school teacher. Sardar died in 1962.. After the war, Taj Mahal restaurants were also started in Northampton and Brighton, even a non-Indian restaurant called Café de Paris, but gradually, all the restaurants passed into other hands. One interesting feature that all "Indian" restaurants had in common was that, until some time after the war, all the staff came from what is now Bangladesh, most being Muslim, although religion was never an issue with the three Hindu Vir/Bahadur brothers. Bengali seamen started arriving before the war and they left their ships to stay in London. Most staff had wives and children back home and sent money back They lived in squalid rooms where noone else would live. Restaurants were open every day of the year for business for at least 12 hours plus preparation time. Staff had 1.5 days off per week. They ate the restaurant meat sparingly, preferring to eat fish or to buy Halal mutton when available. The first wave of Indian restaurants after the war were started by ex-employees of the original restaurants. The early Indian restaurants had access to only a limited number of spices and oils. This led to a standard British curry flavour, which became the basic taste. For madras chicken curry there was more cayenne; for malayan chicken curry, one added pineapple. Bhuna gosht was a dry lamb dish; rogan gosht had onions and tomato on top. Pulao was rice stir fried with the basic curry; biryani was a pulao with raisins, fried onions and egg on top. Variations on a theme but delicious! After the three brothers retired, none of their children remained in the Indian restaurant business.