Latest news with #VictoryHouse
SBS Australia
5 days ago
- General
- SBS Australia
Why this historic home saved from demolition could hold the key to a 'lost' Chinatown
Victory House, the historic 1906 home of a Chinese-Australian goldfields family, has been restored and will reborn as a museum in Ballarat. Funds to first build the home were won in an early Melbourne Cup (sketch top right). Source: Supplied, AAP Victory House, built in 1906, was home to a Chinese mine manager family in Ballarat. After being saved from demolition, the house is being transformed into a Chinese heritage museum. Community leaders aim to revitalise the surrounding area into a Chinatown, restoring Ballarat's once-vibrant Chinese presence from the gold rush era. By 1858, Ballarat's Chinese population had peaked at nearly 10,000, accounting for about 25 per cent of the adult male population. Community groups say the restoration of a 120-year-old house is the first step towards establishing a Chinatown in Ballarat to mark the contributions of thousands of Chinese workers drawn to the area both during and after the gold rush. Located at 742 Geelong Road in the Ballarat suburb of Canadian, Victory House was built in 1906 by Chinese mine manager James Wong Chung and his wife, Margaret Wong Chung. Interestingly, the funds — 400 pounds ($17,560 in today's money) — to build the house were won by Margaret after picking the winner named Victory in the 1902 Melbourne Cup. The family lived in the home for more than a century, until it was sold in 2008. Now, plans are underway to convert the restored house into a Chinese heritage museum — the first step in a broader, 10-year plan to revive Ballarat's historic Chinatown. Local Chinese community leader Charles Zhang and the founder of the Xin Jin Shan Chinese Library, Haoliang Sun, led the restoration of Victory House. Sun said the Canadian suburb, where Victory House stands, once had the highest concentration of Chinese miners in Ballarat and was home to six Chinese village camps. Those communities have long since vanished. "Other than the Chinese gold rush display at Sovereign Hill, there's no place in Ballarat today that shows how the Chinese actually lived during that time," he said. Historical records indicate that by 1855, there were approximately 2,000 to 5,000 Chinese miners on the Ballarat goldfields. By 1858, the Chinese population had peaked at nearly 10,000, accounting for about 25 per cent of the adult male population in Ballarat. To bring that history back to life, Sun and Zhang have purchased several buildings on the same street, with more deals in the works. Their vision is to create a precinct that includes a Chinese medicine shop, teahouse, Chinese restaurant and Asian supermarket — what they refer to, for now, as a Chinatown. "We're calling it Chinatown, but the name doesn't really matter," Sun said. "What matters is that a space like this must exist." Zhang acknowledges that building a Chinatown is a bold and complex undertaking — one that will require significant support from local, state and federal governments. "Restoring one house can be done by one or two people. But rebuilding a Chinatown takes a whole team," he said. "It's not something that can be done just out of passion or impulse." Still, Zhang, now in his 70s, remains optimistic. "I hope that in my lifetime, I can devote my energy and ability to doing something meaningful for future generations of Chinese Australians — to keep our history and culture alive." The Victory House museum is currently awaiting council approval to open to the public. Ticket proceeds will go toward the museum's ongoing maintenance. For the first time since its renovation, sisters Denise Johnston and Julie Odgers returned to Victory House, their great-grandparents' former home in Ballarat. Walking past the thick cypress hedge in the front garden, Johnston, 77, said she no longer felt the fear she had as a child. "It was always dark … when the wind would come through, it was really like a haunted house," she recalled. But once they stepped inside, they were greeted warmly with open arms and homemade biscuits. "I felt really emotional when I entered. It has just brought us these beautiful childhood memories," Johnston said. The house was named after the 1902 Melbourne Cup-winning horse Margaret had picked. "Our great-grandmother (Margaret) loved horses. When we come to visit her, she'd be sitting here listening to her radio and reading the racing guide," said Odgers, 75. But sadly, no one in the family has won a race since, she added. The Wong Chung family's Australian story began with James's father, Ah Wong Chung, who migrated from Canton (now Guangzhou) in the late 19th century during the Victorian gold rush. He ran a general store in Linton, supplying goods imported from China to both Chinese and European miners. In 1868, he married Irish woman Mary Anne Baker. The couple had one son, James, the future builder of Victory House. James married Australian-born Margaret Ann Holderhead in 1896. After having six children in Linton, the couple moved to Ballarat in 1903, initially living in a small miner's cottage. At the time, James was managing the nearby Woah Hawp Canton Mine. In 1906, the family moved into the newly built Victory House and welcomed another six children. In 2022, Victory House narrowly escaped demolition when new landowners applied to redevelop the site. Four Ballarat councillors argued the home wasn't significant enough to preserve, given the city's abundance of historic buildings. But after an outpouring of support, including from over 120 Chinese-Australian organisations and descendants of the Wong Chung family, the house was saved and placed on the Ballarat Heritage Register. Mick Trembath, Odgers's son and a sixth-generation descendant, said the restored Victory House held meaning far beyond his own family. "There are very few things in Ballarat that are not only genuine reminders of Chinese culture, but any contributing culture, (including) the Croatian people, Polish people and the German people," Trembath said. "To have something like this … You can walk through it, touch it, and fill it with memories. It's a really important thing. "I was really happy that we were able to save it." Share this with family and friends
The Independent
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
UK's oldest Indian restaurant under threat in row with Crown Estate
The UK's oldest Indian restaurant is facing eviction from its historic central London home of 99 years, in a row with King Charles's property company. Veeraswamy has been frequented by a host of royalty and dignitaries from Britain and overseas during its decades spent in Victory House at 99 Regent Street, with notable guests including Princess Anne, Winston Churchill, Indira Ghandi and Charlie Chaplin. The restaurant even believes it was the only outside caterer ever to have been invited by Queen Elizabeth II to cater a function hosted by the late monarch at Buckingham Palace in 2008, an honour repeated in 2017 during a visit by the Indian president. The Queen herself then accepted an invitatation to dine at the restaurant with Veeraswamy's owners, but the plans were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, Ranjit Mathrani, co-owner of its parent company MW Eat told The Independent. But Mr Mathrani now fears Veeraswamy will be forced to close after the Crown Estate opted not to renew the restaurant's Regent Street lease, which expires in June – in a dispute over a space roughly the size of the back of a transit van. After being informed of the decision last year, MW Eat is now taking the Crown Estate to court in a bid to delay their eviction – in the expectation that around two years would ideally be needed to reopen the restaurant at a new location. Mr Mathrani warned that, if the Crown Estate refuses to allow Veeraswamy to remain at the site until it can find an alternative, it would be forced to close prior to reopening elsewhere, potentially putting the jobs of its 50 staff at risk. 'It would be the end of a very significant living institution,' said Mr Mathrani. 'The thing about Veerswamy which is different is: it's not a mausoleum – a sarcophagus. It's a living, legendary institution which has been sustained and maintained over the years to be at the top of the game.' The Crown Estate said it needs to carry out a major refurbishment of the building, with limited options because of its grade II-listed status. The offices on the upper floors of Victory House are reported to have been empty since late 2023 following a flood in the basement, which affected the power supply to parts of the building. A Crown Estate spokesperson said: 'We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible. 'Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.' Instead, once the entrance has been removed in order to create a reception area for the offices above, the restaurant will also be converted into new offices as part of the planned renovation, according to The Times. Mr Mathrani told the newspaper that the Crown Estate had insisted it would not be possible to create a new entrance for the building, and has so far been unable to find suitable place nearby for the restaurant to relocate to once the lease expires. 'I think it's an outrage. This is cultural philistinism,' Mr Mathrani told The Independent. 'Here is an institution supposedly with some regard for history given its legacy and its social objectives. And it is basically subordinating everything to the homogeneity of having a uniform office building.' In court documents, Mr Mathrani alleges that 'Crown Estate representatives made it clear to me that the historical significance of Veeraswamy is not a material consideration for them, because they are currently driven by an imperative instruction to maximise financial returns to the Treasury'. He adds: 'The general view at the Crown Estates, is that they can only do this by maximising offices and retail, and not our restaurant. However, at no stage have they asked us to match the returns they would receive from the offices or the retail unit.' Speaking to The Independent, Mr Mathrani said he believed that, 'if the Crown were being constructive and were mindful of their social responsibilities', they could achieve their objectives by keeping Veeraswamy at Regent Street. 'It'll be a tragedy if we were to end up – as we're going down the path of – with long expensive court cases of no benefit to either side,' he said, adding: 'It is sad and unfortunate that they've been unwilling to actually engage ... I hope it's not too late for them to reconsider.' Established in 1926 – on the same day Queen Elizabeth II was born – by retired Indian army officer Edward Palmer, grandson of the Mughal princess Faisan Nissa Begum, and taken over by MP William Stewart in 1934, Veeraswamy played host to a long list of famous figures over the past 10 decades, including Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier. The restaurant is also said to have given rise to the tradition of pairing beer and curry, after Prince Axel of Denmark visited Veeraswamy and had a barrel of Carlsberg sent to the restaurant. It has held a Michelin star since 2016, and hosts around 80,000 diners each year, the majority of whom it says are visitors to London. Noting that it 'has a duty to generate value for the nation, while acting as responsible stewards for this historic part of London', the Crown Estate added: 'We appreciate this is upsetting for Veeraswamy and have offered to help find new premises elsewhere on our portfolio having explored other options to accommodate their needs. 'Veeraswamy has been a valued part of Regent Street for many years. We thank them and their customers for their contributions to the West End.'
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK's oldest Indian restaurant faces closure in dispute with crown estate
It has been a fixture of British-Indian dining since it first opened its doors in April 1926 on the day of Elizabeth II's birth, serving guests over the decades ranging from Marlon Brando to the late Queen herself. Yet despite surviving the Blitz and London's relentlessly competitive restaurant sector, a dispute with the current monarch's property developer threatens the survival of London's oldest Indian restaurant just short of its 100th anniversary. The crown estate, which owns Victory House, the listed building housing the Michelin-stared Veeraswamy restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, has said that it cannot continue to extend its lease against the backdrop of plans to refurbish and upgrade offices in the same property. Veeraswamy's co-owner Ranjit Mathrani is now heading to the high court to attempt to have the lease extended. He intends to lodge objections to the plans. Mathrani is also sure that the royal family would be unhappy to hear what is being done in their name to a restaurant long regarded as the grand dame of British-Indian food. He said: 'They believe in history, in living history, and that's what this restaurant is. It's not just a museum, and I think they would be disappointed that an institution bearing their name would be so heartless.' At lunchtime on Monday, diners waxed lyrical about the restaurant's heritage and current menu, which includes classics such as patiala shahi raan en croute, a Welsh lamb shank slow-cooked for six hours before being wrapped in pastry and grilled in a tandoor. The same menu includes photos of its historical equivalents, which included wartime offerings of lobster mayonnaise, jugged hare and sherry trifle. While the fare has evolved and sought to keep pace with modern British-Indian cooking, celebrity guests have remained constant. One diner said: 'It's just a really lovely place and for as long as I can remember there's always been a sort of excitement about it. It was a few years ago but I can remember coming here and the Prince of Wales was in another part of the restaurant. They had curtains drawn but there was a buzz.' Established in 1926 by Edward Palmer, the great-grandson of the first governor general of India's private secretary and a north Indian Moghul princess, the restaurant was intended to 'educate' Londoners about Indian food decades before the era of celebrity chefs. It was sold in 1934 to an MP, Sir William Steward, who made it a fashionable rendezvous among royalty and British elites returning from India. After a period of decline in the 1980s, it was bought by Mathrani and Namita Panjabi, who poured resources into recreating its past glories. In 2008, the restaurant catered for a function held by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and it was invited back to launch the UK-India 2017 Year of Culture. In 2016, it was awarded a Michelin star. Nevertheless, modern commercial motivations are now a factor in its future. The crown estate, the royals' ancient portfolio of land and property across England and Wales, wants to take back the restaurant because it plans to extend a ground-floor reception area for offices upstairs in the building that houses Veeraswamy. Knocking into the restaurants's entrance area, where a uniformed usher greets visitors, would give an extra 11 sq metres. The crown estate said in a statement issued this week that it needed to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. 'This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible,' it added. 'Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.'
