OXFORD’S longest-running Indian restaurant is to shut its doors after almost 60 years.

The Bombay Restaurant, in Walton Street, Jericho, has been a favourite with residents and students since it opened in 1955.

But owner Ali Ashraf will shut on Saturday so he can he can concentrate on his other restaurant, Peppers Burgers, located two doors down.

The Bombay is set to re-open as a Chinese restaurant next month. The eaterie was opened by father Ali Taher and was the city’s second Indian after Taj Mahal opened in Turl Street in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. One of Britain’s first Indian restaurants, it closed in 1992.

The Jericho dad-of-three told the Oxford Mail: “We are closing down because all the family members have grown out of this trade.

“I am concentrating on Peppers. Bombay is very demanding.”

Mr Ashraf, who started managing the restuarant when his father died 10 years ago, added: “Peppers is a very easy-going business and is going fantastically well.”

Head chef Arzoo Miah said: “I will miss the students, they are ever so polite. It is sad.”

To mark the end of an era, proceeds from Friday will go to St Barnabas Primary School, Hart Street, Jericho.