Squatters recruit lawyers after TV chef Ramsay launched legal battle

• Occupiers entered Ramsay’s York and Albany pub in north London last week

A shameless group of squatters vowed to fight Gordon Ramsay in the courts after the TV chef launched a legal battle to kick them out of his £13 million London pub.

The invaders told how they have recruited their own lawyers ‘to defend their rights’ after Ramsay launched High Court legal proceedings against them.

But the brazen squatters urged Mr Ramsay to drop the case and ‘come to an arrangement’ with them to ‘help save him some money’.

The defiant occupiers entered Ramsay’s York and Albany pub in north London early last week and told how they planned to turn the empty venue into a community cafe.

A group calling themselves the Camden Arts Cafe collective announced they had left the building after papers were served but occupiers today claimed that 60 people remained on the premises and have no plans to quit.

The squatters have taken over the Gordon Ramsay pub which is currently up for sale with a guide price of £13 million

The pub and boutique hotel was run by Gordon Ramsay – but the chef was reportedly in the midst of renegotiating the lease

The York & Albany pub in Camden, north London, was taken over by squatters earlier this month who said they wanted to turn it into a soup kitchen

Occupiers today claimed that 60 people remained on the premises and have no plans to quit

One member of the group, a 28-year-old bar worker who is originally from Liverpool, told MailOnline: ‘We’re still here. We’ve not moved out. We’re fighting the eviction. We’ll go to court with our lawyers and from there we’ll see what happens.’

READ MORE: Gordon Ramsay serves papers to masked pub squatters who trashed TV chef’s £13million London boozer – as they moan their soup kitchen to feed the homeless has been ‘cancelled’

Calling on Mr Ramsay to open up a dialogue with the group he said: ‘Ramsay was down here after we came in but but he didn’t show his face. I don’t know if he was scared. He’s under a lot of stress.

‘We would like to sit down and have a chat with him to explain our intentions.

‘We could save him a lot of money on court costs and security. We’re paying for the electricity ourselves.

‘We changed it over to our names. We’d be happy to make a property guardianship deal with him. We’re happy to come to arrangement which would benefit him. Maybe set up a rolling contract of a few days at time.

‘We could help him money from the court case. We would look after his building until the new leaseholder come in and then we will leave.

‘He could save money on security by having us here. No other squatters would move in.’

Members of the group distanced themselves from squatters who had taken over a restaurant in London’s Leicester Square which had been run by

One member of the group, a 28-year-old bar worker who is originally from Liverpool, told MailOnline the squatters had not moved yet

The group have called on Mr Ramsay to open up a dialogue with them

The squatters 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’

They insisted it was not against the law to occupy residential properties and that the group had moved in to highlight the homeless crisis.

READ MORE: Gordon Ramsay’s REAL kitchen nightmare! Masked squatters who have trashed TV chef’s £13million London pub say they are going nowhere – as they claim they are turning the Grade II-listed building into a soup kitchen to feed the homeless

The squatter, who declined to give his name, said: ‘It’s completely different to what was going on in Leicester Square. We don’t want to be a part of that. It’s anti-social.

‘We know some of them but they’re not part of us.

‘We want to keep the peace. We want to get on with the neighbours.

‘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.

The group locked themselves inside the Grade II-listed hotel and gastropub situated just outside Regent’s Park last week

All of Ramsay’s kitchen equipment is still ‘in tact’ and ‘immaculate’

‘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.’

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