A Gordon Ramsay company has secured a High Court order to remove squatters who have occupied the TV chef’s £13million London pub.
A group of anarchists locked themselves inside the Grade II-listed York & Albany hotel and gastropub situated just outside Regent’s Park last week.
They set up a now closed ‘autonomous cafe’ inside the building, called Camden Art Cafe, pledging to serve free food to the local community.
The pub and boutique hotel was run by Ramsay – but the chef was reportedly in the midst of renegotiating the lease and launched legal proceedings against the group.
Lawyers for Gordon Ramsay Holdings International Limited (GRHI) told a judge it had an ‘immediate right to possession’ of the pub and asked for an order to retake the property amid a ‘risk of public disturbance’.
Judge Simon Brown granted the order at a short hearing in London.
The invaders told reporters yesterday how they had recruited their own lawyers ‘to defend their rights’ for the High Court hearing on Thursday, but none of the group attended and they were not represented by a lawyer.
It is understood from court staff that the order paves the way for High Court enforcement officers to retake the occupied pub in the coming days.
Timothy Foot, representing GRHI – which counts chef Ramsay as one of its directors, told the court that squatters had been served legal papers via email and in physical form.
Mr Foot said that GRHI ‘remains the leaseholder of the property, notwithstanding that it has ceased trading at the premises’.
He continued: ‘The claimant says it has immediate right to possession. It says that the persons unknown who have entered the land have done so without its consent and… it is therefore requesting an order for possession.
‘Had the claimant not brought and served proceedings then a so called community cafe which was operated would have continued to operate..
Mr Foot said that this ‘poses a risk of public disturbance’, adding that the cafe had now ‘ceased’ but ‘some squatters remain at the property’.
‘In these circumstances the claimant is entitled to an order for possession,’ the barrister said.
Mr Ramsay previously called the police but was unable to have the squatters removed, it is understood.
Last week, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement: ‘Police were made aware of squatters at a disused property in Parkway, Regent’s Park, NW1 on Wednesday, April 10.
‘This is a civil matter and so police did not attend the property.’
In 2007, film director Gary Love bought the freehold of the former 19th century coaching inn.
He subsequently leased the property to Mr Ramsay on a 25-year term with an annual rent of £640,000.
The Kitchen Nightmares host unsuccessfully attempted to free himself from the lease in a legal battle at the High Court in 2015.
The venue went on sale at the end of last year with a guide price of £13 million.
According to a Companies House document, GRHI is the holding company that offers management and operational support to the restaurants within the Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Limited group.
Yesterday, the group of squatters insisted it was not against the law to occupy residential properties and that the group had moved in to highlight the homeless crisis.
One of the squatters said: ‘The idea was to use it for the community benefit which is better than the building being left lying empty.
‘We are respectful. We could have hung banners out of windows and held parties here but we haven’t because we don’t want to cause the neighbours a nuisance.
‘There’s 60 of us here people from all different backgrounds, different stories but we’re all peaceful people. We speak to the neighbours and say hello. We keep ourselves to ourselves.’
The squatter said that while other members of the group had moved ‘to another high profile building’ in the capital the rest planned to remain until they ‘still had the right to do so’.
He said:’ We’re keeping our spirits up. If the worst comes to the worst, we’re going to leave the building. We’re going to leave it as we found it.
‘It’s an empty building. We didn’t cause any damage to get into the place. There was no forced entry. We got in through an open window.
‘We’re not here to destroy the building. Everything is here in tact the way it should be.
‘We’re not here to cause criminal damage. We’re not here to cause Ramsay any damage to his building.
‘All of his stuff is still here. We’ve not barricaded the doors with kitchen knives. There are some barricades on the door but not kitchen utensils or anything like that.
‘All of his kitchen equipment is intact. Everything is still there and it’s still immaculate.
‘We cut the gas off ourselves and use our own electric hub to heat stuff – pot noodles and stuff that is easy.
‘There’s no budding Gordon Ramsay’s in there – there is a bit of of effing and blinding sometimes but that’s about it.
‘If we get evicted we’ll move on somewhere else.’
