Squatters transfer into Marco Pierre White’s Leicester Square restaurant days after Gordon Ramsay pub | EUROtoday

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Squatters occupied the positioning of celeb chef Marco Pierre White’s former restaurant within the coronary heart of Leicester Square – simply days after Gordon Ramsay’s £13m London gastropub was commandeered by anarchists.

A bunch moved into the positioning of the now-closed Mr White’s Steak, Pizza and Gin House final week and “put big padlocks on the doors”, a supply driver informed the Evening Standard.

“It’s not ideal for the reputation and image of the Square,” he informed the newspaper. “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.”

Another native enterprise proprietor informed the paper: “It’s one of the best buildings on the square, they are properly barricaded in. They put the sign on the door about their legal rights. They obviously know what they are doing.”

The Metropolitan Police have now secured the five-storey constructing and there have been no signal of squatters on Tuesday, in response to the Telegraph.

The supervisor of a close-by restaurant mentioned she had been informed by Westminster City Council that authorities had found round 400 individuals occupying the constructing. The Independent has approached police and the council for additional info.

Black & White Hospitality, the corporate arrange by White with entrepreneur Nick Taplin, has additionally been approached for remark. It beforehand ran the 600-cover restaurant – previously a Chiquito’s – earlier than it reportedly closed its doorways in February.

The non permanent occupation follows the takeover of the Hell’s Kitchen star Ramsay’s former York & Albany gastropub close to Regent’s Park, by a gaggle who needed to arrange a group cafe and gallery.

They had been served authorized papers on Tuesday, kick-starting the method of getting them evicted from the Grade II-listed constructing.

The occupation of an individual’s non-residential property with out their permission just isn’t itself against the law within the UK, nevertheless, police can take motion if crimes are subsequently dedicated, together with damaging the property or stealing from it.

While the Metropolitan Police mentioned final week that the occupation of Ramsay’s gastropub was “a civil matter”, the chef’s firm Gordon Ramsay Holdings International Limited has now filed High Court proceedings in opposition to the squatters.

The squatters had beforehand introduced their intention to show the area right into a group cafe and artwork gallery, aiming to “open our doors regularly to anyone and everyone, particularly the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2”.

“We provide free food, drinks, and a space to display their art without the ridiculous red-tape galleries that require people to jump over. We believe all of us and our art deserves dignity,” they mentioned in an announcement on Instagram.

The Independent visited the pub on Monday for a “Paint N’ Chinwag” session open to everybody, with one squatter saying: “It is so peaceful at night and you can hear the lions roar from London Zoo.”

But the next day, the squatters introduced that they’d closed the cafe after they’d been served.