By Katherine Lawton and David Pilditch and Megan Howe
15:38 17 Apr 2024, updated 17:07 17 Apr 2024
- Do YOU know the squatters? Email katherine.lawton@mailonline.co.uk
Squatters with plastic Aldi bags over their heads have been pictured receiving a delivery of noodles at Gordon Ramsay’s empty £13million gastropub.
The Camden Art Cafe, a self-styled ‘autonomous’ group of radical activists, took over the celebrity chef’s former York & Albany pub in north London last week in what they claimed was a legal occupation of the building.
The group were yesterday served papers by Ramsay forcing them to ‘cancel’ their plans to turn his pub into a soup kitchen, which they said they were running from the Camden eatery.
Meanwhile, a massive clean-up operation is underway after squatters invaded celebrity chef Marco Pierre White’s former restaurant in the heart of London’s Leicester Square.
One local businessman claimed owners could face a £100,000 bill after the empty Mr White’s Steak, Pizza & Gin House restaurant was occupied by activists who threw a party for up to 400 people there at the weekend.
It is believed the occupiers are part of the same Camden Art Cafe group that took over Ramsay’s empty gastropub.
Squatters put up identical ‘legal warning’ signs in the two empty premises – claiming it was a criminal offence to enter the buildings without their permission.
Do YOU know the squatters? Email katherine.lawton@mailonline.co.uk
Squatters at Ramsay’s former pub have even been calling themselves Gordon in an ‘I Am Spartacus-style’ attempt to protect their identities.
Local traders told how police moved in to kick the occupiers out during a rowdy party that was held at White’s Leicester Square restaurant – which saw organisers shamelessly charge people to enter.
Today the London building has been secured again with workers carrying out repairs inside.
The squatters’ ‘legal notice’ has been torn down and sheets of paper have been put on the doors to shield debris left behind in the wake of the occupation.
The four storey white-fronted building was also left with graffiti scrawled over the walls and windows.
One local shop owner, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline: ‘The property was empty, a new tenant was about to move in but they broke in and they then put signs up saying that the law is on their side and you can’t get them out.
‘They had a big party on Saturday night where they said there were 400 people here.
‘The people who were occupying the building were even charging people to get in – it’s unbelievable what they get away with.
‘Once they are in there they do anything they want. They come in and they wreck the property inside. ‘There is graffiti all over the walls. The owners could have a bill for £100,000 or more to repair all the damage inside and pay for lawyers
‘Sometimes the owners even have to pay the people to agree to get out, like blackmail.
‘It’s just not right. It should be stopped. The law needs to change so that it does not work in the favour of these people.
‘They went too far this time and the police were able to get them out and the property was secured but this is unacceptable.
‘The tenants will be paying £600,000-a-year rates on that property alone that goes to the council.
‘People are having to pay for private security because the police don’t do anything.’
A local street cleaner said: ‘The people that were in there are all gone. The building has been taken over again by the owners.
‘On Saturday night it was crazy. They got in through the back alleyway and went up some stairs to get into the building.
‘The police came in and emptied everyone out.The following morning I came to start work at 6am and it was quiet again.’
It is understood the squatters arrived last week and occupied the restaurant which had been one of the biggest eateries in the West End.
The 14,500sq ft venue opened in late 2021 at a former Chiquito site and was billed as the TV chef’s first return to the West End in a decade.
It was run by Black & White Hospitality, the company Mr White set up with entrepreneur Nick Taplin, but suddenly closed its doors in February.
The popular restaurant – which sold £20 cuts of steak, £15 bowls of pasta and salads for £8.50 – had undergone a £1.5million refurbishment before it closed earlier this year.
Squatters have recently targeted million-pound restaurants owned by celebrity chefs in some of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
Yesterday Ramsay, a former protégé of Mr White, served papers to evict activists who had taken over his £13 million York & Albany boutique hotel and gastropub in Regent’s Park and tried to turn it into a homeless soup kitchen.
Mr White’s flagship restaurant in Leicester Square closed at the start of 2024 after nearly two years of trading.
Black & White Hospitality launched in late 2021 with the 14,500 square foot venue traded as a ‘steak, pizza and gin house’.
No reason was given for the closure and customers with bookings were said to have arrived to find that the restaurant had closed indefinitely. Shortly after the closure, squatters began to move into the premises.
Ellen Leyco, manager of Jollibee, a Filipino fast-food restaurant next door to Mr White’s, told The Telegraph that up to 400 people had been living on all floors of the building.
She reported the issue to Westminster City Council after rubbish appeared at the back entrance to the building.
She told the newspaper: ‘The council regularly visits us. When they were here last week I told them they need to look into Mr White’s because it is causing us some trouble.
‘The council came back today and told me I was correct as they found 400 people there.’
Another manager at the restaurant, Johnray Nagramba, said homeless people used to camp outside the back door to the building, but assumes they found a way to get in through the front door.
He told MailOnline: ‘I never saw them because they had put cardboard up covering all the doors and windows.
‘They never really bothered us because people couldn’t see them.’
The fast-food restaurant complained to the council about rats and mice coming from that building.
Mr Nagramba added: ‘When the police arrived to sort it out, they must have discovered the squatters.’
Meanwhile, Joe Waller, another manager at the restaurant, told the Evening Standard: ‘It’s not ideal for the reputation and image of the Square.
‘There were people queuing at the back alley into the building for what looked like a big party.
‘The squatters have chosen a very nice building. They haven’t given us any trouble but it’s not ideal.’
The MailOnline has contacted Met Police and Mr White’s agency for comment.
Marco Pierre White was awarded three Michelin stars in 1995 at the age of 33 after opening Harveys in Wandsworth in 1987 and later trained Gordon Ramsay.
In 1999, Marco retired his career as a chef and returned his Michelin stars.
Mr Ramsay has also been targeted by squatters, with at least six people claiming they were taking over his Albany hotel to set up a soup kitchen for the homeless.
The group put a legal notice on the outside of the building, threatening action against anyone who tries to force them out. Ramsay was about to sign over a multi-million pound lease to new partners when they arrived.
Yesterday, The Camden Art Cafe, a self-styled ‘autonomous’ group of radical activists, were served papers forcing them to ‘cancel’ their soup kitchen they said they were running from the Camden eatery.
They put a post on their Instagram profile saying they had been served with papers and had to cancel their opening yesterday.
The statement read: ‘Apologies to everyone who was going to come along today. Papers served, cafe cancelled!’
Representatives for Ramsay, who was reportedly in the midst of handing the lease for the building over to a new tenant, have declined to comment on the latest step in the squatting saga.
On Sunday, the activists said they had taken over the pub to make it available to ‘victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2’.
MailOnline had sought to contact the squatters for comment – but they failed to respond to requests on social media and, when approached by journalists on Saturday, ran away.
A statement released on Instagram read: ‘It seems only fitting that £13million properties that most locals would never be able to afford to visit should be opened up to all.
‘The York and Albany is an iconic building in Camden since its opening in the 1820s; it has withstood wars and bombs, and despite what the media says, it will withstand the potentially short but hopefully long stay we squatters have here.
‘At a time when Camden market has been bought out by a billionaire and many longstanding local businesses are being evicted from their units, it’s even more important that we all band together in all the forms of resistance that we know and can.’
Donors dropped off raw supplies – including 10kg of potatoes – for the radical group as they moved into the Grade II listed pub.
Notices in the windows asked for donations and claimed that the squat was not illegal because recent changes to occupation laws only covered the unpermitted use of residential buildings.
Pictures taken on Tuesday show the building had been prepared for a fresh opening of the self-styled ‘community cafe’ before papers were served on the squatters.
Cans of spraypaint sat in a box on a small table in the rear room where people had been invited in last week for soup.
Ramsay had been seeking legal advice over the weekend after the Metropolitan Police said it could not intervene in a ‘civil matter’.
The Kitchen Nightmares star began leasing the property in a 25-year deal in 2008, turning it into a boutique hotel and gastropub restaurant, but unsuccessfully tried to bow out of the lease in 2015.
Ramsay had claimed his father-in-law, who was then CEO of his company Gordon Ramsay Holdings had used a ‘ghost writer machine’ to sign his name on a document that made him personally liable for the rent. The court found in favour of Gary Love.
The Mail On Sunday reported in 2020 that the pub had racked up losses totalling a staggering £15 million since opening in 2008.
The records also reveal that the establishment made losses of more than £550,000 in just one year, to the end of August 2019.
In April 2023, Howard Thacker saw squatters take over his pub, the Rugby Tavern in Clerkenwell for eight weeks.
He suffered losses of £100,000 in damages and lost revenue after initiating legal proceedings to take his pub back.
He told The Telegraph: ‘They [squatters] have traditionally chosen empty warehouses and buildings but clearly they have realised now that pubs and hotels are a lot more comfortable.’
He said that if it can’t be proven that squatters have broken in, then it’s a civil matter and nothing can be done.
He referred to it as a part of ‘lawless London’ where ‘anything less than major crime doesn’t seem to matter to the police’.
