Blue plaque in Brighton recognises Indian Sake Dean Mahomed

The blue plaque for Sake Dean Mahomed has been unveiled at the Queen’s Hotel in Brighton by mayor of Brighton Alexandra Phillips.

Sake Dean Mahomed was responsible for opening the first Indian restaurant in Britain, the Hindoostane Coffee House in George Street near Portman Square in London. The restaurant offered Indian foods along with tobacco hookah pipes in a separate smoking room.

Born in Patna in North India in 1758, Sake Dean worked for the East India Company and rose to be a Jamindar, the highest rank open to an Indian at the time. When an Irish officer from the company returned to his native Cork, Sake Dean accompanied him.

He later enrolled in college to learn English and met and married Jane Daley, a marriage that involved adopting her Protestant faith.

He then wrote the first book written and published in English by an Indian, The Travels of Dean Mahomet.

The couple and their children moved from Cork to London, where he established Britain’s first curry house. In 1809 it is believed Sake Dean bigamously married Jane Jeffreys, under the Anglicised name of William Mahomed.

After initial success, the restaurant venture failed. In 1814 he moved to Brighton with his Irish wife and founded the Indian Vapour Baths and Shampooing Establishment on the site that is now the Queen’s Hotel.

The vapour bath experience involved being enclosed in a container into which hot water vapour was pumped, purfumed with spices and herbs said to have been imported exclusively from India.

King George IV and King William IV were patrons of his bath house, earning Sake Dean the nickname Shampooer of Kings.

The blue plaque was the result of a fundraising appeal by the Chattri Memorial Group, which seeks to remember Indian soldiers.

Davinder Dhillon, chairman of the group, said: “This is a historical event in the cultural legacy of Brighton”.