Squatters leave Gordon Ramsay’s £13m London pub

Squatters who took over a Gordon Ramsay pub in London have all left the building, a representative for the celebrity chef said.

The group shut themselves in the York & Albany near Regent’s Park, north London, on 13 April, boarding up the windows, locking the doors and putting up a “legal warning” defending their takeover.

Locksmiths and bailiffs arrived at the property around 5am on Monday 22 April to change the locks and secure the venue, the Evening Standard reported.

A representative for Ramsay told the PA news agency the squatters have now all left the building, from which they had been running an “autonomous cafe” and arts space.

Some had already been seen leaving the site after lawyers for Gordon Ramsay Holdings International Limited (GRHI) secured a High Court order for the premises on Thursday 18 April, which had appeared to pave the way for enforcement officers to retake the Grade-II listed building entirely.

But on Saturday 20 April, the squatters tore down court orders taped to the venue’s doors and vowed to remain inside the gastropub and hotel, claiming to have reached an agreement with the building’s owner.

Film director Gary Love, who purchased the freehold of the premises in 2007, denied the claims in a statement made on the same day.

Members of the Anarchist Association London Branch and the Camden Art Cafe had previously been with the squatters, handing out free food and drink to “the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2”.

A squatter told PA on Friday 19 April: “We’re not bad people. I pay my taxes, I’ve got a job, I work in a pub.”

He added: “We just need a place to stay, that’s it. We’re trying to do a good thing here.”

Love leased the pub to Ramsay on a 25-year term for 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 £13m.