ONE of Cambridge’s most august institutions has been saved from closure after Michael Portillo and Stephen Fry stepped in to stop it being demolished.

But “Gardies”, as it is affectionately known, is unlikely to feature alongside Trinity Chapel and the Wren Library in tourist guides: the Gardenia Restaurant is the much-loved local kebab shop.

Tucked down a cobbled alley in the heart of Cambridge, Gardies has provided vital late night sustenance for Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, Zadie Smith, David Baddiel and tens of thousands of other students since it opened in 1961. More fashionable than McDonald’s and deemed more tasty than the kebab vans in the main square, it is the first thing most students learn about upon arrival.

With infinite patience and good humour, the staff at Gardies have always appeared to delight in drunken, boisterous students popping in on the way back from a nightclub.

So when Gonville and Caius College announced it must close to make way for a new student accommodation block, there was a ferocious backlash.

Galvanised into action by the student newspaper Varsity, 8,000 students past and present put their names to a petition, including Messrs Fry and Portillo. Though the college denies it, this is believed to have helped to change the minds of those in authority.

The quality of the Greek and vegetarian dishes has rarely been the main lure for its customers. It is a popular place for blind dates and has also served as a dating agency with students leaving their phone numbers on the walls.

In pride of place is a wall of photographs of drunken student japes. Images of Sacha Baron Cohen, Carol Vorderman and Alice Patten are believed to be among the pictures to appear.

Vasilis Anastasiou, the owner, who took two months off with depression when told of the closure threat, said yesterday: “It’s great news. There was a lot of support from the students and the community and as far as I’m concerned local opinion won this time, which isn’t always the case.

“The college has had a change of heart. I don’t think they wanted to go to court, it wouldn’t have been good for them or anybody.”

Mr Anastasiou contemplated selling the pictures from the “wall of shame”, the liveliest of which show students kissing, wearing traffic cones and nothing else. But now the college has agreed to let the restaurant stay until 2011.

Barry Hedley, the senior bursar of Caius, said: “We were never going to close Gardenia, we were going to exercise our break in the lease with the existing tenant. The Gardenia is a business which in our view could very well have moved.

“But Mr Anastasiou chose to conclude that he wouldn’t be able to do that. A new arrangement has been agreed.”

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